The object of this convention is to organize a federation of all institutions, societies, city and village improvement associations, and schools and other organizations in the United States, whose purpose is to promote the study of art, the cultivation of public taste, and the application of art to the development of material conditions in our country.

In his opening address to a convocation at the National Academy of Arts on May 11, 1909, Secretary of State Elihu Root called for the formation of an agency that would send “exhibitions of original works of art on tour to the hinterlands of the United States.” Root’s motion was unanimously endorsed by representatives from eighty American art institutions, among them, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery. With that unanimous vote, the American Federation of Arts was born. The organization’s founders, which included Andrew W. Mellon and William Merritt Chase, further agreed to hold annual meetings and devote themselves to promoting the visual arts as a vital component of the nation’s cultural life.

When Root proposed the creation of the AFA in 1909, no such forum existed to link cultural institutions and facilitate broad access to original works of art. The nation’s artistic wealth was largely concentrated in eastern cities and inaccessible to most citizens. As people did not have the means to travel easily and see art, the AFA sought to address this limitation by “bringing the museum to the people” through touring exhibitions. During its inaugural year, the AFA organized three traveling exhibitions, the first of which was Thirty-Eight Paintings by Prominent American Artists.

The AFA’s founders could not have predicted that the museum community would burgeon to the vast proportions of today. This expansion is reflected within the organization itself, whose members now span all fifty states. The AFA still heeds its original mission, seeking ways to foster greater appreciation of the art of all cultures and time periods and developing and touring exhibitions that are presented in museums across the country and abroad. Throughout its long history, the AFA has adapted to changes within the culture at large, and its programs serve as a barometer of the fluctuating needs of museums and the art-viewing public. The poet Ezra Pound once called artists “the antennae of the race,” and the AFA likewise can be seen as the museum world’s antennae, registering subtle changes within the field. In addition to its prominent international program of exhibitions, the AFA throughout its history has sought to meet new demands and further its goals through a variety of efforts including publications, educational initiatives, film and video exhibitions, and membership benefits. During its founding year, the AFA launched Art and Progress magazine (later renamed Magazine of Art), an innovative vehicle for art scholarship that continued to be published until 1953. The AFA also published the first edition of Who’s Who in American Art in 1935, as well as the American Art Annual (later known as The American Art Directory). While it no longer publishes directories and journals, the AFA retains a commitment to publishing new art historical research through the catalogues it produces in conjunction with its exhibitions.