About the Kress Collection
Samuel H. Kress: The Man Behind the Collection
Samuel H. Kress
painted by Leopold Seyffert in 1953.
The Early Years
Samuel H. Kress was born in 1863 in Cherryville, Pennsylvania. He was the second of seven children born to German and Irish immigrants. He grew up and attended school in Slatington, Pennsylvania before working in stone quarries later in his youth. By 17, Kress had earned his teaching credentials and began working as a teacher. He saved the money he earned from teaching to open a stationery and notions store in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. The success of his first store allowed him to expand. He started a chain of five-and-dime stores, opening the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. His business quickly grew to multiple locations. Unlike many peer business owners, Kress opted to locate his stores in rural areas that he thought might grow. This decision contributed to the success of his stores.
The Birth of a Collection
By the 1920s, Kress was a wealthy man. He was living in a penthouse on Fifth Avenue in New York City, located just across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He started collecting Italian Renaissance art, inspired, in part, by the book The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, a series of artist biographies written by Giorgio Vasari, a sixteenth-century Italian painter. Kress decided he wanted to collect an example of work by every artist listed in the book.
The Kress Collection Goes on Tour
In the 1930s, whilst the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression, a portion of the Kress Collection traveled the United States. The tour began in Atlanta, Georgia at the High Museum of Art. It was supposed to visit eight cities over several months. However, the American public was so captivated that the tour was extended to three years and visited 25 venues. This tour not only launched the Kress’ collection in the public eye, but presented many Americans their first opportunity to see works of art from this period in person.