Whereas the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) was founded on April 13, 1870, by civic leaders, artists, businessmen, collectors, and philanthropists for the express purpose of bringing art and art education to the American people; Whereas over the last 150 years, the Met has built a collection and education programs that reach over 7 million museum visitors every year from around the country and the world, bringing both art and education to millions of Americans in fulfillment of its original mission; Whereas today the Met is the largest art museum in the United States with over 4 million items in its collection, 80,000 of which are on display at any time, and featuring the work of many of the most important artists in history; Whereas throughout its history, the Met has celebrated American art and artists and presented the first permanent installation in an American art museums of American colonial and early Federal decorative arts and architecture; Whereas the Met has preserved more than a dozen historic American interiors from numerous buildings slated for demolition to preserve the history of American design; Whereas the Met now houses one of the world’s largest and most important collection of works by American artists, including: Berenice Abbott, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Cole, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Daniel Chester French, Winslow Homer, John La Farge, Emanuel Leutze, Edmonia Lewis, Maria and Julian Martinez, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Paul Revere, Diego Rivera, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Alfred Stieglitz, Gilbert Stuart, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Kara Walker, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among many others; Whereas the Met has built reciprocal memberships with 16 museums across the country to ensure that Americans from every part of the country can enjoy access to the treasures of the museum