The Metropolitan Museum of Arts was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens, men of business, philanthropists and leading artists of the day with the purpose of promoting education.
John Jay, an American lawyer accreddited for the museum's original idea, carried out the project upon his arrival from France. Along with a group of Americans moved by the arts, he was able to officially inagurate it on April 13, 1970 at the Dodworth Building on 681 Fifth Avenue.
By 1880, the museum had been relocated to where it now stands on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street.