On May 31, 1905, The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy celebrated the dedication and opening ceremonies for the 1905 Albright Building.
The ceremonies, which were presided over by BFAA President Ralph H. Plumb, included a choral performance of a work by Beethoven by the Orpheus, Sängerbund, Teutonia Liederkranz, and Guido Societies, conducted by Horatio Parker; an address entitled “Beauty and Democracy” by Charles William Eliot; a second choral performance of an ode written by Arthur Detmers; the reading of a dedicatory poem entitled “A Temple of Art” by Richard Watson Gilder; and to close the ceremony, the singing of a hymn written by Philip Becker Goetz. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the program notes, “The Gallery will then be open to the people.”
Guests at the dedication of the 1905 Building on May 31, 1905. Photograph from the The Buffalo Illustrated Times, June 4, 1905. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York.
Charles William Eliot addresses the gathered crowd on May 31, 1905. Photograph from the The Buffalo Illustrated Times, June 4, 1905. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York.