A delighted happy birthday to the founding director of The Museum, John Cotton Dana! Dana founded The #NMOA in 1909 as a complement to this educational mission. “A good museum attracts, entertains, arouses curiosity, leads to questionings, – and thus promotes learning.” “The Newark Museum of the future,” he declared, “will make and use collections useful to our manufacturers, housewives, students, importers, and dealers...” Furthermore, “Tomorrow, objects of art will be bought to give pleasure, to make manners seem more important, to promote skill, to exalt handwork, and to increase the zest of life by adding to it new interests...” - Portrait of John Cotton Dana by Ercole Cartotto, pencil drawing on paper, 28 1⁄4 “ x 21 7/8 “, Collection of the Newark Museum, Purchase 1935 Thomas L. Raymond Bequest Fund, 35.205. Mr. Dana posing for a portrait bust by the sculptress Gerta Rica, 1928. Collection of the Newark Museum Archives.