In the lobby of the Newark Museum of Art, there are two bronze plaques — one of its founder John Cotton Dana, another of department store owner Louis Bamberger — that seem locked in a century-old conversation. Most visitors pass by without a second thought. But these plaques tell a fascinating story about the museum’s early days.
The plaque of Bamberger was unveiled at the building’s cornerstone dedication in 1925. It was a token of gratitude for donating the new building. Before then, the Newark Museum of Art, which was founded in the city’s public library, didn’t have a dedicated space. The plaque of Dana was unveiled the following year when the building opened to the public.
The artist chosen to design the plaque was John Flanagan, a well-known sculptor of his day, who has been somewhat forgotten. It is a shame how few present-day residents are aware that Flanagan was responsible for designing, among other things, the U.S. quarter. The choice to commission a Newark artist for these plaques was important to the museum’s curators, according to Amy Simon Hopwood, associate curator of decorative arts.
“The fact that they hired Flanagan to create the plaques — as opposed to a New York artist who had trained in Europe or a European artist — shows that from the very beginning Dana was interested in promoting American artists,” Hopwood said.
In the 1920s, the value of a museum’s collection was still defined by the amount of European art it had. But John Cotton Dana, the museum’s founder, turned that formula on its head and for that reason, the Newark Museum of Arts is considered a forerunner.
The collection today not only includes American paintings and sculptures, but also jewelry and furniture, much of which was made within the city’s borders.
At the turn of the 19th century, Newark was the fifth-largest manufacturing city in the United States, churning out products like furniture, silverware, and pianos. In the early years, the museum held exhibitions that featured locally made goods, including clay products (1915), leatherworks (1926), metalworks (1929), and jewelry (1929). It’s notable that Chester Hoag, president of the museum’s board, was one of Newark’s largest manufacturers.
Not long after the 1926 opening, the museum held a series of exhibitions called Inexpensive Objects of Good Design. Dana tasked museum staff with buying objects from local department stores, such as Bamberger’s and Hahnes, according to William Peniston, the museum’s former librarian who authored the book Newark Museum of Art.
“The slogan for that exhibition was that beauty has no relation to price, age, and rarity — that summarizes Dana’s philosophy succinctly,” Peniston said. “You can find beauty in everyday objects — art is all around you.”
The line between museum and showroom was often blurred, intentionally, which may seem strange to contemporary museum goers. The purpose was to uplift local Newark industries. But it was also a commentary on destroying the traditional hierarchy of what makes something a work of art and who gets to decide that. This was the same question Andy Warhol was asking in the 1960s with his silkscreen art of Campbell soup cans, a clear critique of how mass production and consumerism was complicating the definition of what makes something valuable.
Nowadays, American art no longer suffers from the same inferiority complex. But we are still asking similar questions: What makes something art and who gets to decide?
In addition to stunning landscapes by Hudson River School artists like Asher Durand who helped put American art on the map, visitors at the Newark Museum can still see some of these locally manufactured goods today. The Ballantine House features a hand-carved rosewood chair from the 1850s made by John Jelliff and a late 19th-century cigarette case made by the Art Metal Works.
The museum is still uplifting Newark’s artists as Dana envisioned. When the Ballantine House reopened in 2023, it challenged the definition of a house museum by introducing contemporary artist into the home, including a stunning stained-glass inspired work by Jo-El Lopez that appropriately stands across from the stairwell’s Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass window. It was a decision that not everyone understood, Hopwood said, but it is keeping with the museum’s original mission.
As for Flanagan — not to be confused with another sculptor of that same era with a similar name John Flannagan — you can find his works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and in the Library of Congress. Though, anyone who has had a bunch of change in their pocket can brag they’ve owned one of his greatest works of art — and it isn’t even worth a dollar.
