The Hispanic Society of America - New York

Since its founding in 1904 by the American scholar and philanthropist Archer M. Huntington (1870-1955), The Hispanic Society of America has promoted the study of the rich artistic and cultural traditions of Spain and its area of influence in the Americas and throughout the world. The Museum and Library collections of the Hispanic Society are unparalleled in their scope and quality outside the Iberian Peninsula, addressing nearly every facet of culture in Spain, as well as Portugal, Latin America and the Philippines into the twentieth century. The names El Greco, Velázquez, Goya and Sorolla alone convey the importance and quality of the artistic treasures within the Hispanic Society. With more than 800 paintings, over 6,000 watercolors and drawings, along with some two hundred works of sculpture, the Museum collections offer a comprehensive survey of Spanish art from medieval to modern times. Magnificent examples of ceramics, glass, furniture, textiles, ironwork and jewelry abound among the more than 6,000 objects in the Society’s encyclopedic collection of decorative arts from throughout the Hispanic world. Among the works on paper, over 15,000 prints afford a unique view into the graphic arts in Spain from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. More than 175,000 photographs from the 1850’s forward serve as an invaluable resource for documenting the art, culture and customs of Spain and Latin America. The Library offers unrivaled resources for research into the history and culture of Spain, Portugal and Latin America with more than 250,000 books and periodicals, including 15,000 volumes printed before 1701. Its myriad treasures range from the monuments of Spanish literature, most in first editions such as La Celestina and Don Quijote, to examples of the earliest printed books from the Americas. Over 200,000 manuscripts, documents, letters and maps spanning the past millennium include works as diverse as medieval chronicles and royal charters, fifteenth-century Hebrew bibles, cartographic landmarks such as the Vespucci world map of 1526, and seventeenth-century grammars of the indigenous languages of the Americas.