By Amy Waters Yarsinske
“The Chrysler Museum – A Celebration of the Human Spirit” by Amy Waters Yarsinske was originally published in the Norfolk Lore section of the Norfolk Community News, Mid-Feburary 1995.
In 1905, the alumnae of the Leach C Wood Seminary for young ladies formulated plans for a Norfolk museum. They held meetings to discuss their collection of art objects kept in the library on Freemason Street and, by 1914, had formed the Irene Leache Art Association to find a location for the growing collection. The Norfolk Society of Arts continued the search for a suitable site in 1917. Finally, the City of Norfolk gave the society the Lee Park area overlooking The Hague, now only a small part of the present site of The Chrysler Museum.
The Chrysler Museum is discussed in depth in Norfolk, Virginia, The Sunrise City by the Sea.
The Norfolk Society of Arts maintained its collection at the library until Florence Knapp Sloane made it possible for them to use the building she and her husband, William Sloane, owned at the corner of Mowbray Arch and Fairfax Avenue. As a member of the Norfolk Society of Arts and the Irene Leache Memorial Fund, Florence Sloane organized a building committee which would open the first phase of the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences in 1933. William Sloane was the first president of the museum Board and Florence its first director. Together, the Sloane’s focused their efforts to enhance Norfolk’s cultural life for as Florence Sloane was oft to say, “Norfolk was nurturing its human spirit.”
William and Florence K. Sloane were a quiet, driving force behind the arts in Norfolk, particularly as the museum struggled for its existence in those first years. Florence was the epitome of persistence when it came to the museum having loved the arts from the time she was a child. Florence was a transplanted New Yorker when she came to Norfolk in 1895 as the bride of William Sloane, president of William Sloane and Company, a textile manufacturer.
William Sloane, Norfolk Industrialist
William Sloane founded the knitting industry in Norfolk but his civic and business activities went far beyond that. Sloane was one of the organizers and president of the company which constructed the Beridey Bridge. He eventually became president of People’s Bank and Trust Company of Berkley which merged with Seaboard National Bank and in turn was joined with Citizen’s National Bank in downtown Norfolk. She also built one of the finest office buildings in e city – the Wainwright Building – on Bute Street. For many years the building was home of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad as well as Florence’s Expanding collection of artwork on several floors of the building.
The Sloane’s were behind-the-scenes benefactors of many causes which frequently involved service to the area’s military. Mrs. Sloane established a convalescent hospital during World War I in Algonquin Park, and the United Service Club house was temporarily used to store the museum’s artwork prior to the construction and opening of the first wing. Florence Sloane was active during the First and Second World Wars with the Red Cross, YWCA and YMCA. During World War II she served as a gray lady at the Norfolk Naval Base.
Mrs. Florence Sloan, Norfolk Socialite
Of all the milestones in Norfolk history, one of the most interesting was achieved by Mrs. Sloane. She was selected by the Cosmopolitan Club as the First Citizen of Norfolk in 1932, the first woman to be so honored. The award was given for her cultural achievement and leadership in establishing the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. Her citation was read by Major S. Heth Tyler at a ceremony held at the Norfolk Country Club.
It was the fifth year the award had been given and the four previous winners W.W. Houston, Dr. Southgate Leigh, Charles L. Kaufman, and George H. Lewis were present. Tyler was quoted in newspaper accounts as saying, “In our newer civilization we are apt to be unmindful of this field (cultural atmosphere). The man who has no conception of the beauty of arts is to be pitied, not ensured.”
In her address, Mrs. Sloane asserted that a community effort built the museum paying special praise to the then deceased Dr. Charles R. Grandy for his tireless hours of work in bringing the arts to Norfolk.
The Chrysler Museum – Sloan’s Mark on Norfolk
Many more people contributed their time and money to make the museum, now The Chrysler Museum, possible but few dispute the quiet and focused effort of the Sloanes. When William Sloane died in February 1940, the Ledger-Dispatch wrote that he “left his mark, monuments of [his] life here… Far more largely than any other man, than any other person except Mrs. Sloane, he built an institution as far removed as possible from his business, any business, and from any other type of building – the Norfolk
Museum of Arts and Sciences, a monument in itself.” The museum was a project of the human spirit for William Sloane and his wife and the direction they gave to the museum, the life they breathed into it, was born of devotion to bettering who we were and what we were to become as a city.
Becoming The Chrysler Museum
The Norfolk Museum added a second wing and courtyard in 1939; however, it took longer for The Chrysler Museum as we know it to become a reality. Former Mayor Roy Martin (1963-1971) supported the growth of the Norfolk Museum. In a May 1993 interview, he remarked that one of the most outstanding events during his time in office was the expansion of the Norfolk Museum. The Willis Houston wing was added in 1968. Near the end of Martin’s tenure as mayor in 1971, the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences merged with Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.’s museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts, to become The Chrysler Museum.
Walter P. Chrysler and his wife, Norfolk native Jean Outland, moved to the city around the time of the merger. They brought magnificent collections including 7,500 pieces Of glass accumulated by Jean Chrysler. By the mid-1980s, The Chrysler Museum went through its greatest expansion, making the courtyard a spectacular atrium and adding gallery space. Former Mayor Martin is currently chairman of theboard of The Chrysler Museum and the Museum is getting ready to expand again.
In an effort to enrich our cultural experience, The Chrysler Museum offers ongoing programs through its Historic Houses — the Adam Thoroughgood House in Virginia Beach, and the Moses Myers House and Willoughby-Baylor House in Norfolk. Reading Through the Past, the children’s monthly book club, and Shake Hands With History feature monthly tours, workshops, readings, lectures and activities on aspects of early American life and history. Check out the Norfolk Community News calendar Place & Faces, to find many activities offered by The Chrysler Museum and Historic Houses in honor of Black History Month.
Read more about the the Adam Thoroughgood and the Adam Throroughgood House in LOST Virginia Beach and Virginia Beach: A History of Virginia’s Golden Shore.