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The J. Kenneth Loughry records contain documents from the Treasurer's office, including financial and investment-related reports, and correspondence related to the Metropolitan Museum’s Finance Committee from 1949 to 1962. They also include Loughry’s correspondence with Museum trustees and staff members and materials pertaining to the activities of the Cultural Institutions Group, of which the Metropolitan was a member organization, especially related to employee pension and insurance issues. The records include one folder each of budgetary analyses of the proposed merger of The Metropolitan Museum of Art with The Whitney Museum of American Art in 1944 and the Metropolitan’s centennial celebrations in 1970.
Records pertaining to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees, Finance Committee, legal proceedings, investments, and specific employee compensation information are restricted according to Museum policy.
J. Kenneth Loughry (1905-1976) served as Assistant Treasurer (1944-1947), Secretary of the Finance Committee (1947-1968), and Treasurer (1947-1968) of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He retired prematurely in the autumn of 1968, citing reasons of health and other personal considerations. He lived in Fort Collins, Colorado, and was killed in an automobile accident in in Idaho Springs, Colorado, in April 1976. After graduating from Wesleyan University, Loughry had served as a certified public accountant with the firm of Lybrand, Ross Brothers & Montgomery (later Coopers & Lybrand) before joining the Metropolitan Museum’s staff.
The J. Kenneth Loughry records are arranged in three series: I. Board of Trustees, II. Finance Committee Meetings, III. General Files.
Collection is open for research.
Records pertaining to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees, Finance Committee, legal proceedings, investments, and specific employee compensation information are restricted according to Museum policy.
[Title of item], [date], Box [number], Folder [number], J. Kenneth Loughry records, Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives.
Loughry, Mr. and Mrs. J. Kenneth, 1944-, Office of the Secretary Records, Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives.
Files in this series containing sensitive financial, personnel, and Board-related information are restricted, according to Museum policy.
This series contains privileged financial information and is restricted, according to Museum policy.
Museum Estates files, Office of the Secretary Records, Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives.
This series includes files related to the Metropolitan Museum's participation in the Cultural Institutions Group. Formed in 1869, the Cultural Institutions Group consists of representatives from privately endowed New York City cultural institutions that receive public funding, termed quasi-public institutions. The organization shares information on and lobbies for continued funding and benefits coverage from the City, including participation in city-operated pension plans for their employees. At this time, the Group consisted of representatives from the American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the Brooklyn Museum, Children’s Museum Brooklyn, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of the City of New York, New York Aquarium, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Public Library, New York Zoological Society, Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, the Staten Island Museum, and the Staten Island Zoological Society.
Also included are files documenting the Munsey Park residential real estate development. When millionaire investor, real estate speculator, and newspaper owner Frank A. Munsey died in 1925, the greater part of his estate, with a final value of close to ten million dollars, was left to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was the largest monetary gift to date that the Museum had received. The estate included ownership of the
“Art museum sold Sun and Telegram.”