Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
- Date:
- 1940 - present
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, D.C., institution in a Georgian-style mansion built in 1801 and housing Byzantine art (4th–15th century), pre-Columbian art (in an addition of eight circular glass galleries designed by Philip Johnson), and three libraries: a 100,000-volume Byzantine collection, an 18,000-volume pre-Columbian collection, and a 13,000-volume gardening and landscape architecture collection. The mansion (originally the home of William Hammond Dorsey), art collections, and book collections were all owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, who presented them (along with funds to maintain them) to Harvard University in 1940. In 1944 the conference of representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and the Soviet Union that led to the founding of the United Nations was held at the mansion.