Museum of Modern Art, 1976.

The Museum of Modern Art began as the brainchild of three women in 1929: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan. The women rented rooms in the Heckscher building on Fifth Avenue with the idea of creating a museum that championed modern art, especially the new European modernist artists. Bringing in A. Conger Goodyear as the museum's president as well as other influential trustees, Rockefeller and co were able to open to the public in November of 1929.

Abby's husband (John D. Rockefeller Jr.) wouldn't pay for the endeavor as it began and the Museum had several temporary sites after the Heckscher building, including Rockefeller Center. However, he eventually donated land for MOMA's permanent (and current) home. It was in 1939 that the MOMA's new site, notable for architects Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durrell Stone's international design, opened to the public