Description
Chartered by Congress in 1870, this is one of the oldest museums in America. It was founded by merchant, businessman and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), who contributed both his art collection and the building to house it; when the collection outgrew its first home, Corcoran gave funds for a new building and a school of design in connection with the museum. This new structure (1893), designed by Ernest Flagg in the the Beaux Arts style, is identified as an early and integral