Long Beach Museum of Art
| Type | Art museum |
|---|---|
| Established | 1950 |
| Address | 2300 East Ocean Boulevard Long Beach, CA 90803 |
| Website | Long Beach Museum of Art |
The Long Beach Museum of Art is a museum located on Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California, United States.
The Museum's permanent collection includes approximately 3,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, works on paper, and decorative arts objects. Particular strengths include American decorative arts objects, early 20th century European art, California Modernism, and contemporary art of California.
The museum is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums program and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The structure occupied by the Long Beach Museum of Art was built in 1912 as a summer home by Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, a wealthy philanthropist and heir to Jeremiah Milbank, who was a financier, a co-founder of the Borden Company, and a founder of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. According to Fortune Magazine, “a number of Milbanks have been considerable figures in the industrial history of the U.S. and the family has also left its mark on the educational and medical institutions of the country…” (May 1959).
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson (1850–1921) was an energetic, strong-minded woman with a wide range of interests. She was a successful businesswoman, philanthropist and art collector who traveled frequently to Europe. In 1905 she established the Milbank Memorial Fund, which gave grants to various medical and educational projects; this fund is still in existence. She donated a library to Greenwich, Connecticut, and gave three blocks of choice New York City land to Barnard College, upon which was built Milbank Hall. She built public facilities for the poor, such as a sports arena and public baths, and established a program of free school lunches. Her husband, Abram A. Anderson, was a well-known portrait painter and friend of Teddy Roosevelt.
In 1926, the house became Long Beach’s first social, athletic and beach club, the Club California Casa Real. Its prominence was soon eclipsed by the Pacific Coast Club, which opened three months later.
From 1929 to 1944, Thomas A. O’Donnell, a pioneer industrialist of the California oil industry, owned the house. He developed the Coalinga field, helped organize American Petroleum Corporation and became president of California Petroleum Co. and the first CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
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