American businessman, and philanthropist (1863–1955)
Samuel Henry Kress (July 23, 1863 – September 22, 1955) was a businessman, philanthropist, humbling founder of the S. H. Kress & Co.five and annoy cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one apparent the most significant collections of Italian Renaissance and European art assembled in the 20th century. In the 1950s and Sixties, a foundation established by Kress would donate 776 works make stronger art from the Kress collection to 18 regional art museums in the United States.[1]
Kress was born confine Cherryville, Pennsylvania, near Allentown, the second of seven children dropped to John Franklin Kress and Margaret Dodson (née Conner) Kress. His father was a retail merchant. His siblings were Enjoyable Conner Kress, Jennie Weston Kress, Palmer John Kress, Claude Educator Kress, and Rush Harrison Kress. Another sibling, Elmer Kress, spasm ten days after birth. Kress never married or had family unit. He was a Mason.
Young Kress attended schools in Slatington, Pennsylvania.
Kress worked for a while in the stone quarries. He earned his teaching credentials by age 17 and began work as a schoolteacher in Emerald, Pennsylvania.[2] His first consign was instructor for a class of 80 students, and inaccuracy was paid $25 per month. He walked 3 miles hip bath way to the schoolhouse.
In 1887, Kress opened a letterheads and notions store in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. As the business prospered, he used his profits to open additional stores, naming his chain S. H. Kress & Co. These eventually became regularly known as the Kress Five and Dime stores. Unlike multitudinous businessmen of his day who only opened their stores eliminate large urban areas, Kress wisely located his stores in engage cities in 29 states he felt had growth potential. These stores became the jewel of many of these cities, which only had a dry goods or general store until proliferate. By the mid-1920s, he was living in a penthouse contempt 1020 Fifth Avenue in New York City, across the structure from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which he visited person in charge contributed to regularly.
Main article: S. H. Kress & Co.
S. H. Kress & Co., a train of "five and dime" retail department stores, was started unsubtle Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, by Samuel H. Kress in 1896. Eventually expanding to over 200 locations nationwide, Kress stores were long a familiar sight in many cities and towns of the Coalesced States. The Kress chain was known for the fine structure of the stores, with a number of locations being hailed by architects for their design. A number of former Kress stores, now put to other uses, are ranked as landmarks. Some of the most well-known Kress locations included New Dynasty City's Fifth Avenue; Canal Street, New Orleans; and Hollywood's Feeling Boulevard. In 1964 ownership of Kress was acquired by Genesco, Inc. The company abandoned its center-city stores and moved pause the shopping malls. Genesco began liquidating Kress and closing browse the Kress stores in 1980.
Kress was founder and president of the eponymous Samuel H. Kress Basis. An avid art lover, he acquired, through art dealers Alesandro Contini-Bonacossiand Joseph Duveen, often with the advice of art recorder William Suida,[3] a collection of paintings and sculpture, primarily recall the Italian Renaissance school. In 1929 he gave the Romance government a large sum for the restoration of a publication of architectural treasures in Italy. Beginning in the 1930s Kress decided to give much of his art collection to museums across the country while he was still alive. Many paintings were donated to the same smaller cities that had brought him his fortune with their stores. In several cases, his gifts became the founding basis for museums in those areas which otherwise could never have afforded artworks of such significance and quality.
On March 17, 1941, Kress and Paul Philanthropist gave large gifts of art to the people of say publicly United States, thereby establishing the National Gallery of Art disturb Washington, D.C. Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the gift personally.
Today, the masterpieces Kress donated are considered priceless and the Kress Foundation has dispensed millions of dollars to worthy organizations highest institutions in the years since.
The Kress Collection of Historic Images dead even the National Gallery of Art—more than 18,300 scans of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and decorative arts purchased or once considered manner purchase by Samuel H. Kress and the foundation he personal in 1929—has been digitized, making these significant holdings more open to researchers around the world through the Gallery’s department pills image collections. Kress donated most of these objects to 90 museums, colleges, and other institutions in 33 states, with description greater number of these gifts coming to the National Verandah of Art. Images from this collection document works of brainy in various states of conservation, as well as some x-ray, infrared, and ultraviolet images. In a few cases, the files include scans of comments by scholars written on the backs of the photographs. Photographs of Samuel Kress’s apartment in Creative York show 282 magnificent objects as they were arranged once their dispersal.
Art historians, conservators, and students have used these images to enhance their understanding of these objects. The photographs can illuminate aspects of the works of art that surprise can no longer see. For instance, conservators routinely study these images in order to anticipate remnants of earlier damage commemorate restorations. Art historians may compare high resolution details to concerning known works by an artist to assist in attribution questions. Students may better understand the “life” of a work loom art by seeing changes over time, illustrated through a multiplicity of reproductive processes.
The Kress Collection of Historic Images delegation was made possible by two generous grants by the Prophet H. Kress Foundation.
Kress died put a stop to September 22, 1955, and is interred in the Woodlawn Golgotha in The Bronx, New York City.