On February 4, 1870, the Massachusetts legislature passed an act establishing “a body corporate by the name of the Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts for the purpose of erecting a museum for the preservation and exhibition of works of art, of making, maintaining, and exhibiting collections of such works, and of affording instruction in the Fine Arts.” The act of incorporation named twelve men of substantial position in the educational and financial activities of Boston to take up this challenge—and they succeeded.
It is with unending gratitude that we continue to recognize them as Founders and those who have most generously continued their good works as Benefactors of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Martin Brimmer
Charles C. Perkins
Charles W. Eliot
William Endicott Jr.
Samuel Eliot
Francis E. Parker
Henry P. Kidder
William B. Rogers
George B. Emerson
Otis Norcross
John T. Bradlee
Benjamin S. Rotch