paintings by America’s leading early modernists to Fort Worth from New York. Blips and Ifs (1963–64), the final painting by Stuart Davis (1892–1964), was acquired for the museum from this exhibition, signaling a fundamental redefinition of the museum’s collecting scope. Mitchell Wilder’s embrace of the museum’s collecting mandate led to two building expansions during his tenure, including a major addition in 1977 that doubled the size of the museum (see building history below). Mitchell Wilder died in 1979 after a brief illness. Four other directors have headed the museum in the years since. They are Jan Keene Muhlert (1980–95), Dr. Rick Stewart (1995–2005), Dr. Ron Tyler (2006–11), and Dr. Andrew J. Walker (2011–present). Each worked closely with Amon Carter’s daughter, Ruth Carter Stevenson (1923–2013), in determining the museum’s course. Stevenson had spent the final years of her father's life in conversation with him about his concepts for a museum and the role it should play in Fort Worth civic life. It was this familiarity with his vision, and her extraordinarily high standards, that would bring Stevenson into a leading role in the museum’s development. Jan Keene Muhlert oversaw an aggressive acquisitions program that brought works by William Merritt Chase (1849–1916), Thomas Cole (1801–1848), Arthur Dove (1880–1946), Childe Hassam (1859–1935), and David Johnson (1827–1908) into the collection, crowned by the acquisition in 1990 of Swimming by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916). The purchase of the Eakins masterpiece required a capital campaign to raise ten million dollars and drew on every resource available to Muhlert. Dr. Rick Stewart, Muhlert’s successor, is a nationally recognized scholar on the work of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. During his tenure as director, Dr. Stewart added major works to the museum’s collection by Stuart Davis (1892–1964), Marsden Hartley (1877–1943), and John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Stewart oversaw the challenging, two-year closure during which two previous expansions and the museum’s physical plant were demolished. In their place a much larger facility was erected, culminating in a grand reopening in 2001. When Dr. Stewart stepped down as director, he was named the museum’s senior curator of western painting and sculpture. Dr. Ron Tyler returned to the Amon Carter in 2006 as director. (Dr. Tyler began his museum career at the museum from 1969 to 1986.) During his tenure as director, the museum presented major exhibitions of the work of Alfred Jacob Miller (1810–1874) and William Ranney (1813–1857), and an important