From agitator to historian: the work of Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan—child of Ireland, political organizer in Canada, and finally a New Yorker—gave the state its earliest history as a Dutch colony.

The article analyses the role Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller Junior, played in the support for the art as such, art museums, and individual artists. Providing a wider context of first several women active in the field, the article addresses the involvement of Abby Rockefeller into the institutionalization of Museum of Modern Art. Stemming out of the desire to undertake individual philanthropic goals, Abby was driven to share her passion towards modern art, feeling responsibility for the field of human activity that did not necessarily bring fruit directly ascribed to the advancement of humanity. Shunning the widespread publicity surrounding the Rockefeller family business activities and philanthropic undertakings, Abby aspired to create some space for her own ventures. She was later followed by her daughters-in-law who, in the much-confined world of female entrepreneurship, managed to create outstanding art institutions, conduct successful fundraising campaigns and convince art collectors to donate major pieces of art to museums for the wider audience to appreciate. It will be argued, however, that by doing so the Rockefeller women never transcended the boundaries of their class, status, social roles and family obligations, putting those beforehand. Their philanthropy, although oftentimes divergent from the male family members’ philanthropic endeavors, was not an act of rebellion against norms of female largesse or emancipation from the constraints of social life. It was rather their way of exercising civic duties, making their lives deeply satisfying, brought about by the convictions of art becoming crucial to the elevation of human kind, improvement of human relations, and making the world kinder and more receptive.