Bamberger Museum is Opened in Newark

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Nearly 3,000 persons witnessed the formal opening of the new $650,000 Newark Museum building with its $1,000,000 collection of rare and beautiful objects. Many notables and artists from New York and other cities were among those present.

The opening of the museum marked a significant achievement for Louis Bamberger, local merchant and philanthropist, for it is he who presented the building to the city. Mr. Bamberger laid the cornerstone of the building in May, 1925, but he could not attend the opening of the art structure because he is at present in Florida. A telegram from him deploring his absence was read.

Mayor Thomas L. Raymond delivered the principal address. The Mayor praised Mr. Bamberger and John Cotton Dana, director of the museum. He declared that “The splendid generosity of Louis Bamberger in providing this beautiful building for these ennobling uses is a fine example for us all to give of our means to enrich our store of treasures and broaden our sphere of usefulness, and the wisdom intelligence, creative imagination and great labor of Mr. Dana in creating the idea upon which this foundation rests, should furnish us with guidance and direction for the future growth of this newest force in our educational and cultural life, growing as it must, side by side with the tremendous industrial and commercial future of our city and helping to rear not only fine craftsmen and artists and students, but also finer citizens.”

A bronze relief of Mr. Bamberger has been given a conspicuous place near the main entrance to the building. The relief bears the inscription: “Louis Bamberger. He Gave This Building To Newark May 14, 1925”–the latter in Roman numerals. The donor of the building has agreed to donate a fountain to be placed in the center of the museum court.

The panorama of exhibits on display in the building includes a collection of twenty-three works by modern American painters. Sixteen of the pictures were presented to the museum by Mrs. Felix Fuld, wife of Jersey’s prominent philanthropist and sister of Mr. Bamberger.

Among those prominent in the artistic world present, were: Mr. and Mrs. John Sloan, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Henri, Mrs. Louise Upton Brumback, Louis Kronberg, Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Myers, Henry R. Poore, Henry W. Kent, secretary of the Metropolitan Art Museum; Grace Ravlin, Mr. and Mrs. Niles Spencer, Joseph Pollet and Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Wise Kiser.

The museum building is a three-story structure. In the center of the large sky-lighted court on the first floor stands a full size cast of Venue de Milo. A children’s museum is another one of the many features of the first floor. On the second floor there is at present a big leather exhibit. On the third floor is housed the science department with its rare stones and relics of early American history, handiwork of the Indians and Alaskans.

A. S. W. Rosenbach of Philadelphia was the biggest buyer Tuesday at the third day of the sale of rare volumes from the library of S. R. Christie-Miller in London. Of the total amount of £ 2,863 realized during the day, £ 1,658 represented Mr. Rosenbach’s purchases.