Join us for a book release event with author Jonathan Conlin and art historian Michael FitzGerald in conversation about Conlin's new book, The Met: A History of a Museum and Its People,

Registration is requested for this free event. Please use the registration button below.

A reception and book signing will follow the presentation. Copies of THE MET will be available for purchase, provided by Oblong Books.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s greatest cultural institutions, with collections that spang millennia and encompass vast ranges of art, costumes, instruments, and arms and armor. How did the Met amass its incomparable holdings, and what do the experiences of the people who bought, restored, catalogued, visited, and watched over these works tell us about the museum?

In this groundbreaking bottom-up history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jonathan Conlin tells the stories of the people who have shaped the museum—from curators and artists to museumgoers and security guards—and the communities that have made it their own. Conlin brings their stories to life, revealing the controversies and secrets, failures and successes that make the Met what it is today. 

Jonathan Conlin is a historian of modern Britain with a particular interest in the history of museums and cultural institutions. Born in New York, he studied History and Modern Languages at Oxford, before moving to the Courtauld and then Cambridge for his doctorate. After a research fellowship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and a brief stint at the BBC he moved to the University of Southampton, where he is Professor of Modern History. In 2024 Jonathan published histories of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London's National Gallery, the latter commissioned to mark the institution's bicentenary. His biographies include Adam Smith, for Reaktion's "Critical Lives" series, and an award-winning biography of the Anglo-Armenian oil magnate, art collector and philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian.

Michael FitzGerald, began his career as a member of the Impressionist department at Christie's in New York and has worked extensively with The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, Museu Picasso in Barcelona, and the Museo Picasso Málaga, among other museums. His publications and exhibitions include Picasso: Structures of Invention (2024), Post-Picasso: Contemporary Reactions (2014), Picasso and American Art (2006), Picasso: The Artist’s Studio (2001), and Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-Century Art (1995). He is the Kluger Family Professor of Art History at Trinity College, the Director of Research of FABA (the foundation of Bernard Picasso), an adjunct curator at the Museo Picasso Málaga, and the President of the Board of the Vija Celmins Foundation. He holds both a Ph.D. and M.B.A. from Columbia University.

About The Met: A History of a Museum and Its People

“A tour de force of original research and critical insight, Jonathan Conlin’s The Met is a fascinating study, a must read for anyone interested in the multifaceted history of the United States’ premier art museum."  – Alan Wallach, author of Exhibiting Contradiction: Essays on the Art Museum in the United States

“The Met offers a rich, incisive, original, and highly entertaining account of the evolution of America’s most famous museum.”  – Andrew McClellan, author of The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilba