Bradford Kelleher
Encyclopedia
Bradford Kelleher reinvented the Metropolitan Museum of Art
's gift shop
and merchandise marketing program in the 1960s. He also served as the vice president
of the Met from 1978 until 1986. His ideas for marketing the Met's gift shops and collectible reproduction
s have been mimicked by other museums and nonprofit institutions worldwide. He actively worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1949 until his retirement in 1986. He continued with the Met as a consultant
from 1986 until 2007.
. His parents were William Kelleher, who owned several area department stores, and Dorothy (Crane) Kelleher. Following his graduation from Worcester Academy
, Kelleher became a student at Yale University
. However, he dropped out of Yale when the United States
entered World War II
in order to join the U.S. Army. He served in the Army Signal Intelligence Service
, based in Washington, D.C.
, for four years.
Kelleher returned to Yale after his departure from the military
and began specializing in East Asian studies
. He received his bachelor's degree
in 1948.
. However, he was hired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1949 after his father, William, ran into the museum's then director, Francis Henry Taylor
, at the Century Club
in New York City
.
Kelleher was first hired as a sales manager for the Met. Soon after joining the Met, Kelleher created a new sales department, which was separate from the museum's information services. He opened a new museum gift shop, which was called the Art and Book Shop. At first, Kelleher's new Met store offered little more than a collection of postcard
s of museum objects and other trinkets. However, he soon began to act on plans to expand the store and sell reproductions of famous works of art.
Kelleher continued to supervise the Met store's expansion throughout the 1950s and 1960s. According to the New York Times, by the early 1960s Kelleher's store was selling a wide variety of items ranging from the traditional museum merchandise, such as books, to the less traditional, such as jewelry, prints
and other collectibles.
As the museum's merchandising business grew, Kelleher began to focus on producing high quality replicas of the Met's vast collection of historical and artistic objects. He began began to travel overseas in order to find skilled artisans capable of reproducing the museum's collection for sale in the Met Store. Kelleher began commissioning a wide range of reproductions of the museum's artifacts
in materials ranging from ceramic
to bronze
. The objects quickly became some of the most popular items offered for sale at Kelleher's Met Store. Among the most popular reproductions created by the Met Store and Kelleher was a likeness of a blue Egyptian
hippopotamus
figurine dating from between 1981 and 1885 B.C., that was dubbed "William"; (The museum's iconic blue hippo is now sold as a merchandise line, ranging from "William" puzzles and stuffed animals to pillows and magnets.)
Under Kelleher, the Met began to use its reproduction line as a way to support struggling artists and artisans. For example, in 1959 the Met hired a Chinese refugee
who set up a temporary art studio in the museum's basement
creating traditional ink rubbing
s, which were then sold directly to visitors to the museum, and hiring an Italian potter
who made reproductions of a Pennsylvania Dutch
plate.
Kelleher also supervised the building of reproduction workshops within the museum to ensure the quality of items sold at the Met Store. He defended the commercial and artistic aims of the Met's line of reproductions in a 1970 interview
with the New York Times: "If it’s a faithful reproduction, it has educational value and it’s a way of giving the object wider circulation outside of the museum."
Kelleher was promoted to the museum's publisher in 1972. He was further promoted to vice president
of the Met in 1978.
He retired in 1986, but continued to work with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as an active consultant until his death in 2007 Two years after Kelleher's retirement, the Met opened its first satellite Met Store in Stamford, Connecticut
, in 1988.
business, including the reproductions, begun by Kelleher, currently brings the Metropolitan Museum of Art over $1 million dollars in revenue a year. The Met Stores' offerings currently range from small items, such as key chains, to a $30,000 dollar emerald
necklace
. There are now Met Stores open throughout the United States and around the world, including the flagship Met Store founded by Kelleher, which is located in the main lobby
of the museum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a nonprofit institution
so it is not required to pay taxes to the Internal Revenue Service
on the sale of merchandise that have a proven cultural or educational function to the museum. This applies to items sold at the Met Store and the museum's smaller gift shops. Thus the Met Store and its merchandise has become a major source of income
for the Met. Bradford Kelleher was a frequent defender of the museum's nonprofit sales operations.
and Cutchogue, New York
. Kelleher's death was announced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he had worked for almost 60 years.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
's gift shop
Gift shop
A gift shop is a store primarily selling souvenirs relating to a particular topic or theme. The items sold often include coffee mugs, stuffed animals, t-shirts, postcards, handmade collections and other souvenirs....
and merchandise marketing program in the 1960s. He also served as the vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
of the Met from 1978 until 1986. His ideas for marketing the Met's gift shops and collectible reproduction
Replica
A replica is a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance. An inverted replica complements the original by filling its gaps. It can be a copy used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference...
s have been mimicked by other museums and nonprofit institutions worldwide. He actively worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1949 until his retirement in 1986. He continued with the Met as a consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
from 1986 until 2007.
Early life
Bradford Kelleher was born on July 31, 1920, in Worcester, MassachusettsWorcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
. His parents were William Kelleher, who owned several area department stores, and Dorothy (Crane) Kelleher. Following his graduation from Worcester Academy
Worcester Academy
Worcester Academy is an independent coeducational preparatory school spread over in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States. The school is divided into a middle school, serving approximately 150 students in grades six to eight, and an upper school, serving approximately 500 students in...
, Kelleher became a student at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. However, he dropped out of Yale when the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entered World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in order to join the U.S. Army. He served in the Army Signal Intelligence Service
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
, based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, for four years.
Kelleher returned to Yale after his departure from the military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
and began specializing in East Asian studies
East Asian studies
East Asian Studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present...
. He received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1948.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Kelleher had initially hoped to pursue a career as a cartoon animatorAnimator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
. However, he was hired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1949 after his father, William, ran into the museum's then director, Francis Henry Taylor
Francis Henry Taylor
Francis Henry Taylor was a distinguished American museum director and curator, heading the Metropolitan Museum of Art for fifteen years.He was born in Philadelphia, and started his career as a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art...
, at the Century Club
Century Association
__notoc__The Century Association is a private club in New York City. It evolved out of an earlier organization – the Sketch Club, founded in 1829 by editor and poet William Cullen Bryant and his friends – and was established in 1847 by Bryant and others as a club to promote interest in...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Kelleher was first hired as a sales manager for the Met. Soon after joining the Met, Kelleher created a new sales department, which was separate from the museum's information services. He opened a new museum gift shop, which was called the Art and Book Shop. At first, Kelleher's new Met store offered little more than a collection of postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s of museum objects and other trinkets. However, he soon began to act on plans to expand the store and sell reproductions of famous works of art.
Kelleher continued to supervise the Met store's expansion throughout the 1950s and 1960s. According to the New York Times, by the early 1960s Kelleher's store was selling a wide variety of items ranging from the traditional museum merchandise, such as books, to the less traditional, such as jewelry, prints
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
and other collectibles.
As the museum's merchandising business grew, Kelleher began to focus on producing high quality replicas of the Met's vast collection of historical and artistic objects. He began began to travel overseas in order to find skilled artisans capable of reproducing the museum's collection for sale in the Met Store. Kelleher began commissioning a wide range of reproductions of the museum's artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
in materials ranging from ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
to bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
. The objects quickly became some of the most popular items offered for sale at Kelleher's Met Store. Among the most popular reproductions created by the Met Store and Kelleher was a likeness of a blue Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
figurine dating from between 1981 and 1885 B.C., that was dubbed "William"; (The museum's iconic blue hippo is now sold as a merchandise line, ranging from "William" puzzles and stuffed animals to pillows and magnets.)
Under Kelleher, the Met began to use its reproduction line as a way to support struggling artists and artisans. For example, in 1959 the Met hired a Chinese refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
who set up a temporary art studio in the museum's basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
creating traditional ink rubbing
Rubbing
Rubbing is a reproduction of the texture of a surface with something to deposit marks, most often created with Charcoal, Wax, Crayons, Chalk, or various forms of Blotted and Rolled Ink...
s, which were then sold directly to visitors to the museum, and hiring an Italian potter
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
who made reproductions of a Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
plate.
Kelleher also supervised the building of reproduction workshops within the museum to ensure the quality of items sold at the Met Store. He defended the commercial and artistic aims of the Met's line of reproductions in a 1970 interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
with the New York Times: "If it’s a faithful reproduction, it has educational value and it’s a way of giving the object wider circulation outside of the museum."
Kelleher was promoted to the museum's publisher in 1972. He was further promoted to vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
of the Met in 1978.
He retired in 1986, but continued to work with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as an active consultant until his death in 2007 Two years after Kelleher's retirement, the Met opened its first satellite Met Store in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, in 1988.
The Met Store today
As of 2007, the Met Store and its merchandisingMerchandising
Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer...
business, including the reproductions, begun by Kelleher, currently brings the Metropolitan Museum of Art over $1 million dollars in revenue a year. The Met Stores' offerings currently range from small items, such as key chains, to a $30,000 dollar emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
necklace
Necklace
A necklace is an article of jewellery which is worn around the neck. Necklaces are frequently formed from a metal jewellery chain. Others are woven or manufactured from cloth using string or twine....
. There are now Met Stores open throughout the United States and around the world, including the flagship Met Store founded by Kelleher, which is located in the main lobby
Lobby (room)
A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....
of the museum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a nonprofit institution
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
so it is not required to pay taxes to the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
on the sale of merchandise that have a proven cultural or educational function to the museum. This applies to items sold at the Met Store and the museum's smaller gift shops. Thus the Met Store and its merchandise has become a major source of income
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
for the Met. Bradford Kelleher was a frequent defender of the museum's nonprofit sales operations.
Death
Bradford Kelleher died on October 31, 2007, in Riverhead, New York. He was survived by his wife, Mary. The couple resided in both ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and Cutchogue, New York
Cutchogue, New York
Cutchogue is a census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York . The population was 2,849 at the 2000 census.Cutchogue CDP roughly represents the area of Cutchogue hamlet in the town of Southold.-Geography:...
. Kelleher's death was announced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he had worked for almost 60 years.