complex, though he was given honorary U.S. citizenship. Above his bust is the inscription "New York University to Lafayette 1932", while below is the inscription "I am an American citizen and an American officer." Museum of the Hall of Fame There are storage rooms behind the foundation halls and below the walkway. This space was originally used as the Museum of the Hall of Fame, which contained exhibits and portraits of the hall's honorees. When the Hall of Fame opened, NYU used some of the museum space as classrooms. The museum consisted of six rooms and a corridor; one of the rooms was named the Washington Gallery, after honoree George Washington. History Origin and inspiration Dr. Henry Mitchell MacCracken, chancellor of NYU, proposed the Hall of Fame in the late 1890s to conceal a retaining wall for the Gould Memorial Library, which was exposed because the site sloped steeply downward to the west. According to MacCracken, the hall "owes its inception in large part to hard facts of physical geography". MacCracken took inspiration from the Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Fame) in Munich, Germany, completed in 1853. The Hall of Fame for Great Americans was the first hall of fame in the United States. The word "fame" in the hall's name meant "renown", rather than the modern-day meaning of "celebrity". Chancellor McCracken described the evolution of the Hall of Fame's design: Plans for the Hall of Fame finally proceeded after Helen Gould donated $100,000 in March 1900. John J. Tucker received the general contract for the Hall of Fame. The hall was to contain commemorative plaques for 150 individuals, 50 of whom were to be selected in 1900. Every five years thereafter, the electors would select five additional names by majority vote, with the final selections being made in 2000. An individual was eligible only if they were born in the U.S. and had died at least ten years prior. NYU invited 100 people to serve as electors in late March 1900. At that point, the cost of the hall had nearly doubled to $200,000. Each U.S. state originally had one elector; in twenty states, the chief justice served as that state's elector. The electors received 252 nominations, only 30 of which received the required majority of fifty votes. In October 1900, the NYU Senate approved the first inductees for inclusion. The Senate also approved the addition of a loggia for foreign-born