The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art opened its doors in November of 1929, arriving in Manhattan just nine days after the catastrophic stock market crash. The institution began in humble surroundings, occupying rented space on the twelfth floor of an office building on Fifth Avenue. Its founders, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan, famously known as the adamantine ladies, conceived the project over lunch just a year earlier. They envisioned a radical departure from the city's existing, more traditional art institutions, aiming to create a dedicated home for the visual arts of their own time.