Morton David May (25 March 1914 – 13 April 1983) (known as Buster to his friends and colleagues) was an American
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
and art collector. He was also at various times director, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer of the
May Department Stores
The May Department Stores Company was an American holding company of department stores founded in 1877 by David May. It operated several regional department stores throughout the United States, which were managed as distinct business divisions ...
Company.
[Compton, Gail and Linda Hermanson (1978-3-22), "Community Leader Combines Worlds of Art, Business", ''South Side Journal'']
Biography
May was born to a
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
family, the son of Sarah (née Hirsch) and Morton J. May. He was the grandson of
David May, who started the family in merchandising from a canvas-roofed makeshift shop, in the then-populous city of
Leadville
Leadville ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only List of municipalities in Colorado, incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, Lak ...
,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, during a gold strike in 1877. He soon came to the conclusion that there was no future there, and moved his business to
Denver, Colorado
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
. The whole May family would move out to
St. Louis
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
,
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
in 1905. He opened a store there and later bought out the
William Barr Dry Goods Co., merging it with the Famous Shoe & Clothing Co. — and
Famous-Barr
The Famous-Barr Co. (originally Famous and Barr Co.) was a division of Macy's, Inc. (formerly Federated Department Stores). Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Railway Exchange Building, it was the flagship store of The May Departmen ...
was created. Morton J. May, David May's son, took over the family enterprise, and ran it successfully for many years during Morton D. May's childhood.
[St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1983-4-13), "Morton D. May-1914-1983"]
Morton D. May attended St. Louis's
Country Day school, and then
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
.
Career
Despite his privileged position as heir to May Department Stores fortune, May started out his career with a summer position in the complaints department. After that he held nearly every position from janitor to chairman of the board. In 1951 he was elected president of the corporation, a position which he held until 1967. Then he was chairman of the board until 1972. He was also chief executive officer from 1957 to 1968. He retired from the corporation's board of directors in 1982 and was elected director emeritus.
[Compton, Gail (April 1983), "Prominent Civic Leader Devoted Life to the Arts", ''St. Louis Living'']
Art collection
May became interested in collecting art through his uncle by marriage
Samuel Abraham Marx
Samuel Abraham Marx (August 27, 1885 - January 1964) was an American architect, designer and interior decorator. He is generally considered a modernist, influenced by the International style.
Biography
Marx was born to a Jewish family in Natche ...
in the early 1940s but was interrupted by
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. When the war was over he traveled to galleries in New York and began investigating the paintings of American artists and
Cubists
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture.
Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
, but soon his interests drifted elsewhere.
He was well known for not being a fashionable collector.
When his contemporaries were buying
School of Paris
The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.
The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...
pictures, May was buying tough
German Expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
pictures that turned out to be masterpieces.
In general May focused his collection in three areas, German Expressionism,
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...
, and the indigenous arts of various cultures around the globe, including primarily art from
Oceania
Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, and other
Pre-Columbia
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...
n art that was not specifically from Mesoamerica. In these areas his goal was comprehensiveness. Because he bought so extensively, he sometimes made mistakes, which he famously laughed off, making no effort to conceal them. He even displayed them in his office in the Railway Exchange Building along with his fishing trophies and family photographs.
[Duffy, Robert W. (1983-4-17), '']St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...
''
He was introduced to art by his parents when he was in his early teens. They traveled to Europe and toured various museums, trips which he later characterized as 'forced marches'. He did not learn to appreciate art until he was at Dartmouth where he took a course in modern art and architecture.
In the 1930s May visited the home in Chicago of the architect Samuel Marx, to whom his aunt was married, and from whom he would later commission a house. When interviewed in 1980, he spoke of the visit:
He bought some Pre-Columbian artwork immediately following the war, but mostly between 1945 and the mid-1950s he gave his attention to acquiring German Expressionist works, a movement which were virtually unknown in the United States at the time. In 1948 May asked his friend, the painter Maurice Freedman, if he knew of any artists who were doing good work but weren't very well known. Freedman mentioned
Max Beckmann
Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, drawing, draftsman, printmaker, sculpture, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the m ...
to May, and soon May bought his first Beckmann from dealer
Curt Valentin
Curt Valentin (5 October 1902, Hamburg, Germany – 19 August 1954, Forte dei Marmi, Italy) was a German-Jewish art dealer known for handling modern art, particularly sculpture, and works classified as "degenerate", seized from public museums or lo ...
in New York.
Then he discovered that Beckmann was teaching art at the nearby
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...
. "Imagine my surprise, here he was a quarter of a mile away."
During Beckmann's time in St. Louis, he and May became friends. May, who was painting at the time hired Beckmann to be his tutor. May also commissioned a portrait from him in 1949. Over the years May purchased so many of Beckmann's works that his collection was one of the two major collections in the United States.
[
] (The other belonging to Dr. Stephan Lackner of
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...
)
May also collected works of other German Expressionist Masters of both
Die Bruecke
Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life.
Die may also refer to:
Games
* Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers
Manufacturing
* Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
and
Der Blaue Reiter
''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...
movements, and works by independents.
Some of these include
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke.
Life and work
Schmidt-Rottluff was born in R ...
,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German Expressionism, expressionist Painting, painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expr ...
,
Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.
Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Secessio ...
,
[MacLachlan, Claudia and Robert W. Duffy (1983-4-18), "2 Institutions get May's Art", '']St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...
'' Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...
,
Franz Marc
Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaking, printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), a journal whose ...
,
Erich Heckel
Erich Heckel (31 July 1883 – 27 January 1970) was a German people, German Painting, painter and printmaker, and a founding member of the group ''Die Brücke'' ("The Bridge") which existed 1905–1913. His work was part of the art competition ...
[Saint Louis Art Museum 2004, ''Saint Louis Art Museum Handbook of the Collection'', Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis.] and
Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...
.
In the 1950s, when prices for German Expressionist paintings began to rise, May directed his attention to the expansion of his other collection, the works of art that he had liked so much in the Marx's apartment. He regarded his "
primitive" collection as an extension of his interest in Expressionist art. He found in both areas vitality and enormous expressiveness.
May also avidly collected the contemporary work of the Italian American artist
Edward E. Boccia of St. Louis, visiting the young artist's studio yearly and purchasing multiple works from the mid 1950's through 1983. In 1960 May visited the
Carlebach gallery in New York. He detailed his experience in an introduction to a catalogue for a show of his collection at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
During that time period, there wasn't much of a market for
Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...
n Art, so what he considered to be authentic ritual pieces (pieces from before European contact) were available at low prices.
He also was a patron of unrecognized artists in St. Louis and elsewhere. He was the first to promote the artist
Ernest Trova
Ernest Tino Trova (February 19, 1927 – March 8, 2009) was a self-trained American surrealist and pop art painter and sculptor. Best known for his signature image and figure series, ''The Falling Man'', Trova considered his entire output ...
. Trova had worked as a May Department Stores window designer. May gave Trova space in May's own studio to develop his abilities and talents. Later he sponsored an exhibit of Trova's works.
May was also a great collector of the artist and professor of Washington University of St. Louis Edward E. Boccia whose studio he would visit annually from and purchase work.
Over the course of his life May gifted around three thousand art objects to the
Saint Louis Art Museum
The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...
, including 20th-century paintings and sculptures, a large number of German Expressionist drawings, ritual objects from around the world, and Russian textiles. The majority of these however, were pre-Columbian objects. When the museum's new pre-Columbian galleries opened in 1980 they included roughly three thousand objects, 86% of which were donated by May. During his lifetime, much of the rest of his collection was on loan to various museums around the world, but mostly to the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Washington University Gallery of Art, now called the
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is an art museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, i ...
.
He also bought art with the Saint Louis Art Museum in mind, with the intention of rounding out its collection.
Upon his death he gave the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Washington University Gallery of Art all of the art on loan to them at the time of his death. In addition, works of art on loan to other museums were bequeathed to the Saint Louis Art Museum. Photographs were the only exclusion.
Papers documenting the art collection of Morton D. May are housed in the archives of the Saint Louis Art Museum. One can view a description of the contents at this lin
They are available to researchers by appointment.
Photography
In 1934, during his studies at Dartmouth, he had a rare opportunity to travel to
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
with the free-lance photographer,
Julien Bryan
Julien Hequembourg Bryan (23 May 1899 in Titusville, Pennsylvania – 20 October 1974) was an American photographer, filmmaker, and documentarian who documented the daily life in Poland, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1939, in t ...
. The next year, he made a six-month trip through Russia,
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
, and
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, as Bryan's assistant,
filming for
The March of Time
''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945 that was produced by advertising agency Batten, Barton, ...
series
[Rackwitz, Jim (1983-4-14), "Morton D. May Dies at 69; Civic Leader", '']St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...
'' After that photography became a lifelong passion, and he took his camera with him on his many trips and vacations around the world.
Today eight of his photographs are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
,
and many are in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Other Philanthropy
When May returned from the service, he found the ten-year-old plans for the
Gateway Arch National Park
Gateway Arch National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In its initial form as a List of nationa ...
languishing. He joined the effort for the riverfront memorial, and in 1959 was made president of what was then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association. He was instrumental in the construction of the
Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary Catenary arch, arch, it is the world's tallest arch and List of tallest buildings in Missouri, Missouri's ...
.
May headed fund drives for the Pius XII memorial Library at
St. Louis University
Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River and one of the oldest ...
, and the development of a new
Jewish Community Centers Association campus in St. Louis County. He was on the
Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...
board of trustees, the boards of the
United Fund, the
Regional Commerce and Growth Association, and
Civic Progress Inc.
He was commissioner for the Art Museum and a member of Friends of
Laumeier Sculpture Park
Laumeier Sculpture Park is a 105-acre open-air museum and sculpture park located in Sunset Hills, Missouri, near St. Louis. Laumeier is maintained in partnership with St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department. It houses over 70 large-sca ...
.
He was chairman of the board of the
St. Louis Symphony
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest professional symphony o ...
for eight years. He used his influence at the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
, (the director and he were old fishing buddies, his friendship with the man had also been instrumental in getting the Arch completed) to get funding for the symphony to play at the Arch. His dedication to music in St. Louis did not end with the symphony. He also saved the Dance Concert Society from bankruptcy.
[Pastreich, Peter (1983-5-15), "The Symphony Trustee who 'Always Offered First'", '']St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...
''
In the early 1960s, May organized the
Arts and Education Council in St. Louis because the
United Way
United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...
decided to stop funding cultural organizations to concentrate on health and welfare agencies.
The
Boy Scouts of America
Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
were always important to him. He was instrumental in the acquisition and development of the St. Louis Council's Beaumont Reservation near
Eureka, Missouri
Eureka is a city mainly in St. Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, with a small portion in Jefferson County, Missouri, Jefferson County, Missouri, adjacent to Wildwood, Missouri, Wildwood and Pacific, Missouri, Pacific. It is in the ex ...
and the
S-F Scout Ranch near
Knob Lick, MO. He was also a member of the Boy Scout National Executive Board.
Awards and honors
President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
offered him the chairmanship of the
National Council on the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
, an advisory committee to the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
. He turned it down so that he could stay in St. Louis.
He was awarded the
Levee Stone for his efforts on behalf of downtown Saint Louis, and Washington University's William Greenleaf Eliot Society Award. For his work on behalf of the Boy Scouts, he was given two of their top awards, the
Silver Antelope
The Silver Antelope Award is a distinguished service award presented by Scouting America for outstanding service to young people within one of the organization’s divisions. Since 2022 award has been presented for service to a Council Service T ...
and the
Silver Beaver
The Silver Beaver Award is the council-level distinguished service award of Scouting America. Recipients of the award are registered adult leaders who have made an impact on the lives of youth through service given to the council.
Those deemed ...
. He was also given honorary degrees at
Webster University
Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States. It has multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The university has an alumni net ...
,
University of Missouri at St. Louis, and
Drury College
Drury University, formerly Drury College and originally Springfield College, is a private university in Springfield, Missouri, United States. The university's mission statement describes itself as "church-related". It enrolls about 1,590 undergr ...
.
In 1959, the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat unanimously chose him as Man of the Year.
Personal life
He was married to Margie May; they had three sons: David A. May; Philip F. May; and Morton J. May 2d. In 1982, he married Lucia Piaskowiak, with whom he had one daughter, Chelsea Anne May.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Morton D.
American art collectors
Businesspeople from St. Louis
Philanthropists from St. Louis
Dartmouth College alumni
1914 births
1983 deaths
American philanthropists
20th-century American photographers
May, Morton
May family
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American Jews
Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School alumni