R. T. H. Halsey research papers

R. T. Haines Halsey (1865-1942) was a collector of decorative arts and a founder of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. The son of Frances E. Haines and William F. Halsey, he was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, raised in Louisiana, attended St. Paul’s School, and graduated from Princeton University in 1886. He worked on the New York Stock Exchange from 1899 to 1923, at which time he retired in order to devote time to the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum. He was a trustee and chairman of the committee on American Decorative Arts at the museum and was instrumental in opening the American Wing. For this work, he was elected an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects. He was also vice president of the art commission for the City of New York. He wrote many articles linking American history with decorative arts and was an avid collector of Americana.

Halsey was a member of the Walpole Society and the Grolier Club. In 1914, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Columbia University. In 1925, he served on a committee to redecorate the White House. From 1928-1932, he led a class at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, which entwined political and social history with American art and decorative arts. In the 1930s, he became a research assistant in the Stirling Library at Yale University, primarily working with its Mason collection of Frankliniana and studying early American political cartoons. He was hit by a car in January 1942, and died in February from a heart attack. The names of his first two wives are unknown; at least one of them shared her husband’s enthusiasm in collecting American decorative arts. Halsey’s third and last wife was Elizabeth Tower (1904-1976), who survived him, as did two daughters.