Bashford Dean and the Creation of the Arms and Armor Department December 24, 2012

The Arms and Armor Department was created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Board of Trustees on October 28, 1912. To mark the centennial of the establishment of the Arms and Armor Department, 'Bashford Dean and the Creation of the Arms and Armor Department,' - an exhibition featuring some 25 rare objects and period photographs - will celebrate Dean's multifaceted career, surveying his work as a field zoologist in Japan, a professor of Vertebrate Zoology at Columbia University, and Curator of Fishes at the American Museum of Natural History, and then concentrating on his groundbreaking work as the Metropolitan Museum's first Curator of Arms and Armor. Among the highlights of the exhibition will be a rare example of late Gothic German armor (ca. 1475-1500) that was expertly completed and restored under Dean's close supervision. The exhibit can be found in the Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Gallery, Arms and Armor Galleries