Marion Stratton Gould Fund

A Small Museum Really Takes its Place

The Gallery was notified of its first endowment for collections, the Marion Stratton Gould Fund, in 1930. Board member Hannah Durand Gould named the bequest after her daughter Marion, who died at the age of 13 in 1890.

Isabel Herdle, while studying under Paul Sachs, associate director of Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum, noted the importance of the endowment in an assignment. She indicated that it was important “because a small museum finally had the chance to buy and to assemble a collection.” While reading Herdle’s essay in class the next day, Sachs told the class, “That was most important. A small museum really takes its place in the American scene.”

The endowment became available to the Gallery in 1938.