1881: Cincinnati Art Museum is founded. It is one of the country's oldest visual arts institutions and the first general art museum west of the Alleghenies to be established in its own building.

1886: Cincinnati Art Museum opens its doors, heralded as "The Art Palace of the West."

1907-1910: The Schmidlapp & Ropes wings open. The Emma Louise Schmidlapp Wing was designed by noted Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham in the Doric temple style. The staircase in the two-story Great Hall was redesigned to make room for the entrance of the new wing, which extended through a long gallery and ended in another two-story space with a columned exterior at the far end. Three years later, the Ropes Wing was completed by Cincinnati architects Garber and Woodward, linking the two rear extensions of the building.

1930: The Emery, Hanna & French Wings open. The Emery, Hanna and French wings, built over several years and designed by Garber and Woodward in the Beaux Arts mode, opened Jan. 16, 1930. The Emery and French wings provided galleries on two floors running parallel with the Schmidlapp from the opposite end of the original building, allowing direct access to the Art Academy. The Hanna Wing was connected to the French Wing, forming a rectangular courtyard which later became the Museum's Sculpture Garden.

1937: The Alms Wing opens. The Fredrick H. and Eleanora C.U. Alms wing, designed by Rendigs, Panzer and Martin of Cincinnati, provided for an auditorium and library, as well as gallery and office space. The addition extended the front facade of the building to the east and was faced with stone from the same quarry that had supplied James McLaughlin's first structure.

1945-1955: The Great Hall and First and Second Floors redesigned. The late 1940s and early 1950s saw significant changes to the museum's building. The Schmidlapp Wing's Doric entrance became the main entrance to the museum; the Great Hall was divided into two floors; and the stairway, which had been rerouted for entry into the Schmidlapp Wing, was removed altogether.

1960s: Adams-Emery Wing opens. This single story addition provided a shipping area, carpenter shop and conservation laboratory. The Adams-Emery Wing opened in 1965, covering the entire south facade of the original structure as well as the Alms Wing with a smooth expanse of International Style architecture. The addition greatly expanded gallery space as well as creating the lecture hall and restaurant.

1991-1993: CAM undergoes extensive renovation. An extensive two-year, $13 million renovation project, completed in January 1993, restored the grandeur of the museum's interior architecture and uncovered long-hidden architectural details, in addition to creating new gallery space and improving lighting and climate control. A prominent element of the building's original design, the Great Hall, was restored and now includes a newly designed double staircase. The original 1886 entrance columns and stone arch and other architectural details were uncovered after more than 40 years. Notable features include the original Indiana limestone walls and polished black granite columns with ornately carved capitals.

With the completion of the renovation, 88 galleries provide for the display of Cincinnati's widely recognized permanent collection, which numbers over 80,000 works of art. The Museum's temporary exhibition space was expanded to approximately 10,000 square feet to enable the museum to accommodate major temporary exhibitions or several smaller ones.

Source: Cincinnati Art Museum