Timken Museum of Art

The Timken Museum of Art was founded in 1965 and is located at 1500 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, near the San Diego Museum of Art. 

History

John Singleton Copley's portrait of Margaret Kemble Gage (1738–1815)

In 1951, Walter Ames assisted sisters Amy and Anne Putnam (nieces and heirs of Henry W. Putnam) in forming the nonprofit Putnam Foundation to hold and administer their art collection. The sisters moved to San Diego in the early twentieth century and made early gifts to the San Diego Museum of Art. Initially, the Foundation leased artefacts from its collection to notable museums around the United States. The Putnam Foundation Collection provided the original material for the Timken Museum when it opened in 1965, and Walter Ames became its first director. 

The museum is built on the site of the old Home Economy. Originally created for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, the Pan-Pacific Building was subsequently known as the Café of the World, and the American Legion Building. That structure was demolished in 1963 to make way for the Timken Museum, which was designed by Frank L. Hope and Associates and sponsored by the Timken family.  The museum is a white, futuristic structure made of marble and bronze that has a five-room gallery.

Shortly after the museum's opening, John Walker of the National Gallery of Art lauded its collection, some of which had been on loan at his institution while the Timken was being built:

"It is one of the most beautiful tiny museums I've ever seen...I commend you on your discrimination. You were astute. Some communities have constructed vast museums in the anticipation that countless works of real brilliance will arise mysteriously. I'm afraid they won't for much longer. The issue is not one of money. The issue is locating images to purchase. I cannot replace those who have travelled to San Diego. Paintings like this are nearly impossible to find at any price."