5 Things You Didn't Know About the Original Whitney Studio

By Whitney Studio National Treasure Team

The Titanic Memorial in Washington, D.C. was designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and carved by artist John Horrigan.

On May 1, the Whitney Museum of American Art opened the doors of its new building which sits alongside the Hudson River in New York's Meatpacking District. The building itself is a masterpiece by architect Renzo Pianos, who openly acknowledges the building's unique design as having several aeronautical aspects.

We know from our National Treasures work with the original Whitney Studio in Greenwich Village (now part of the New York School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture) that this unique history is one that is continually taking shape. And because of that, we offer five lesser known facts about Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and the original Whitney Museum of American Art.

Chesterwood is the estate of Daniel Chester French, a contemporary of Whitney's in MacDougal Alley who is best known for creating the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.

1. The Whitney Museum of American Art started in the complex of buildings owned by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in the artists' enclave known as MacDougal Alley.

It exists because in 1928 the Metropolitan Museum of Art declined Whitney's offer to donate her collection of more than 600 works by American artists, prompting her to start her own museum.

2. Daniel Chester French was a contemporary of Whitney's in MacDougal Alley.
He is best known for creating the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. (The National Trust also owns his home, Chesterwood, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.)

3. In 1914, Whitney's design for a memorial to commemorate victims of the sinking of the Titanic was selected by the Women's Titanic Association.

The resulting statue (carved by artist John Horrigan) may have been the inspiration -- or an amazing coincidence -- for the famous scene in the movie Titanic when Kate Winslet stands with outstretched arms on the ship.

4. For a woman in the early 20th century to embark on a career -- especially one at the top of society as Whitney was -- was nothing less than a scandal.

• "Daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt will live in dungy New York alley" (Note: she did not actually live there -- only worked there);

• James Earle Fraser is famous for his "End of the Trail" sculpture depicting an exhausted American Indian on a pony. In 1913, he designed the buffalo and Indian head nickel. He also created the statue of Theodore Roosevelt which is located at the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.