Anson Conger Goodyear (June 20, 1877 – April 24, 1964) was an American manufacturer, businessman, author, and philanthropist and member of the Goodyear family. He is best known as one of the founding members and first president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[1]
The gregarious, energetic, and ingenious Goodyear cheerfully accepted Hoover's orders to do anything necessary to get the coal moving. Employing his native charm and his authority to provide or withhold food shipments, he calmed strikes and opened borders. At one point, he got Hoover to send him $25,000 worth of tobacco to distribute among miners. Within a month, his unorthodox methods contributed to doubling coal production in Central Europe.[8]
During World War II, Goodyear was commander of the Second Brigade of the New York Guard, with the rank of major general.[9] Later in World War II, he was a deputy commissioner for the Pacific Ocean area, including Hawaii, of the American Red Cross. In this capacity, he toured the Pacific battlefronts, covering 50,000 miles.[10] Later, as a military observer, he was at the front in Okinawa with New York's 27th Division and reported to the Secretary of War on conditions in the field and troop morale.[11]
Goodyear traveled to Europe at his own expense to collect paintings for the museum's first showing. While there, he visited England, France, the Netherlands, and Germany, and borrowed 25 paintings valued at $1.5 million (equivalent to $26,616,000 in 2023). In 1939, on the eve of the opening of the museum building on 53d Street, Nelson A. Rockefeller, later the Governor of New York, succeeded Goodyear as MOMA's chief executive.[1]
Goodyear was also the author of several nonfiction works, including:
A Memoir: John George Milburn, Jr. (1938), with Milburn, Jr. Milburn Jr. became a lawyer and was son of prominent New York lawyer John G. Milburn; John Jr's older brother was Devereux Milburn, an internationally known polo player.[14]
American Art Today: Gallery of American Art Today, New York World's Fair (1939), with Grover A. Whalen[15]
The Museum of Modern Art. The First Ten Years (1943)[16]
Philanthropy
Goodyear donated a collection of Civil War materials he had compiled to Yale University in 1953. The collection contained correspondence, diaries, proclamations, and other papers relating to the Civil War.[17]
By the time of his death, Goodyear donated nearly 300 artworks to the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY. He also bequeathed many important works, including Giacomo Balla’s Dinamismo di un Cane al Guinzaglio (Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash), 1912; Salvador Dalí’s The Transparent Simulacrum of the Feigned Image, 1938; and Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Monkey, 1938. Shortly before his death, the museum established the A. Conger Goodyear Fund for the acquisition of new artwork, greatly enhancing its ability to grow its collection in the years to come.[18]
On June 29, 1904, Goodyear married Mary Martha Forman (1879–1973), the only daughter of George V. Forman, also of Buffalo.[3] George Forman was prominent banker and the founder of VanderGrift, Forman & Company, which later became part of the Standard Oil Company,[24] and the Fidelity Trust and Guaranty Company, which later became M&T Bank. Before they divorced, Goodyear and Forman had four children:
George Forman Goodyear (1906–2002),[25] who married Sarah Norton in 1932.[26] After Sarah's death, he married Marion Gurney (née Spaulding), the mother of his son-in-law.[27] George was one of the founders of WGRZ-TV in Buffalo.[28]
Mary Goodyear (1907–1977), who married Theodore G. Kenefick (1898–1972)
Anson C. Goodyear, Jr. (1911–1982)
Stephen Goodyear (1915–1998), who first married Aline Fox in 1942. She died in 1943 and he then married Mary Van Rensselaer Robins, the granddaughter of Thomas Robins Jr., in 1944.[29] Robins was the granddaughter of Mary Van Rensselaer Cogswell (1839-1871) and Andrew K. Cogswell (1839-1900). Goodyear and Robins divorced and in 1964, Robins married Julien D. McKee (1918-2006)[30][31]
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