the cloisters

The museum and adjacent park were created thanks to an endowment grant by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who donated the majority of his collection; it was completed in 1938. Much of the art collection came from that of George Grey Barnard, an American sculptor and assiduous collector of medieval art, who had already established a medieval-art museum near his home in the Fort Washington neighborhood. Rockefeller purchased Barnard's entire collection of art and architectural remnants as a gift to the Met; this collection, combined with a number of pieces from Rockefeller's own collection (including the Unicorn tapestries), became the core of the new Cloisters' holdings. Rockefeller subsequently purchased more than 65 acres (260,000 m2) of land north of Barnard's museum with the intention of converting it into a public park and site for the new museum.[3] Besides purchasing this land and donating it to the city, Rockefeller also purchased and donated to the State of New Jersey several hundred acres of the New Jersey Palisades on the other side of the Hudson River in order to preserve the view for the museum.

this place is amazing! i'm gunna take my mom and my sister here tomorrow. spend the day up there. it'll be tons of fun. i'm excited. and the park that it sits in.... well, i might like it better than central park. with all the gardens/flowers/right on the water. i felt as if i was up at west point. pure beauty.