I can’t remember the last time I was in a museum.

Not that I’m a frequent or regular museum goer but I do periodically go and almost always glad I went. But I’m really not sure what the last time was. Could it really have been the Ansel Adams show at the Museum of Fine Arts in early 2019? That’s the last one I remember but there must have been one after that. (I sure hope so.)

Museums are on my mind because today is the 80th anniversary of the dedication of the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC. In honor of that anniversary, today’s #stampoftheday is a multiple offering of several Christmas stamps that are all in the NGA’s collection: a 6-cent stamp, issued in 1970, showing Lorenzo Lotto’s “The Nativity”; an 8-cent stamp, issued in 1973, showing Raphael’s “The Small Cowper Madonna”; and a 5-cent stamp issued in 1967 showing Han Memling’s “Madonna and Child with Angels”. (The last stamp was part of my #stampoftheday post on Christmas Day.)

The National Gallery of Art was conceived of and funded by Andrew W. Mellon, who, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, made investments helped launch the aluminum, coke, and carborundum industries. One of the richest individuals in America, Mellon, who served as US Treasury Secretary from 1921 until 1932, also was an avid art collector. By the 1920s his collection was generally considered to be one of the finest art collections in Washington. It became even “finer” in the early 1930s when he spent about $6.5 million (the equivalent of more than $120 million today) to buy about half of the “greatest paintings” from the Hermitage Museum, which the Soviet Union was tapping for much needed capital.

Mellon, who funded part of what became Carnegie Mellon University believed the United States should have a world-class national art museum comparable to those of other nations. So in 1936, he wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (whose administration had charged him, unsuccessfully with tax evasion in 1932) to not only offer his 121 paintings and 21 sculptures for a new museum in Washington, but also to provide the funds needed to design and build that building. Roosevelt endorsed Mellon’s offer, and Congress accepted his gift in 1937.

In an essay on The Philanthropy Roundtable website, Amity Shlaes, a conservative author and columnist, contends that while the need for a national art museum was clear, “Mellon’s purpose was…not merely aesthetic.” Rather, she contended, Mellon wanted to provide a counterpoint to the many public buildings then being built in Washington, including “the massive headquarters of the Department of Commerce,” which primarily serves business interests.

“The art gallery Mellon envisioned would thus demonstrate [that]…one of the most irksome features of the tax structure was its progressivity,” she explained, adding Mellon believed that “early and vigorous taxation snatched productive capital from the hands of private citizens before it had a chance to compound its gains. The lower tax rates he promulgated as Treasury Secretary left more cash in private coffers longer. It was time to demonstrate that private compounding would, in the end, benefit the public better than immediate federal outlays. The gallery would be a monument to this conviction.”

Working through a trust established in part for tax purposes, Mellon donated $10 million (about $190 million in today’s dollars) to build a massive gallery on the National Mall. Mellon selected American architect John Russell Pope to design the building, which was done in a neoclassical style that mirrors elements of Pope’s designs for the nearby National Archives building and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The exterior was constructed with Tennessee pink marble, and Pope specified that skylights should cover virtually the entire three-acre roof to illuminate and unite the galleries.

Skeptics though the building might be too big. Shales for example says one of Mellon friends noted he “had an art museum six blocks long on his hands, and enough paintings to decorate a good-sized duplex apartment.” But, Mellon, who, like Pope, died in 1937 before the building was completed, correctly believed that others would make similar donations.

This fact is shown in today’s stamps. Mellon donated the Memling Madonna. Raphael’s Madonna was part of a massive donation made the next year by Paul Widener (uncle, by the way, of Harry Elkins Widener, namesake of Harvard’ largest library). And Lotto’s Nativity was one of almost 2,000 objects donated by Samuel Kress.

The Gallery’s collection has grown to more than 150,000 works thanks to the generosity of other individuals and foundations. In fact, the gallery, which has added a new building decades later, does not spend public money on acquisitions and does not charge admission.

And while the NGA is incredibly popular, is also is a powerful positive and negative symbol, a fact illustrated by the intense debate in the comments section of the Mystic Stamp “This Day in History” post where I first learned about today’s artistic anniversary.

“Those 1%ers, always wasting money on stuff like this,” wrote one reader at noon on May 17, 2016 when the item was first posted.

A few hours later, someone responded, “so vote for Bernie!” Eight hours later, another wrote: “it was Mellon and his family’s money to with as they please. I and most other Americans appreciate his gifts. You need to get out of your double-wide and get some culture, But that is asking a lot from a red neck.”

Another person noted that while it was nice to “share the wealth of history and art but to me, March 17th will always be St. Patrick’s Day, except if you’re from Boston where they also celebrate Evacuation Day…..Enjoy your artsy day!”

But, in the end, I’m with the person who wrote “I am appreciative of Mellon’s efforts to build and house a national museum which symbolizes the rich cultural and artistic heritage of the country….No amount of money could ever be wasted on enriching a child’s life through the humanities and education.”

Or to enrich an adult’s life. I can hardly wait to get back to a museum.

Stay safe, be well, fight for justice, and work for peace.