McCabe, John W., Jr. (1883-1974)
Dates
- Existence: 1883 - 1974
Biography
John McCabe joined the museum staff in 1918 as assistant superintendent and served as superintendent from 1922 to 1956. He began his career at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1905-18, where his brother James F. McCabe was assistant superintendent, 1903-13. James was CMA’s first superintendent from 1913-22, while John served as assistant, until James took the superintendent position at the Art Institute of Chicago. He and James founded the American Association of Museum Superintendents, and did studies, talks and lectures on this aspect of museum maintenance. John’s article, “Heating and Ventilating,” was translated into French and published in the journal Mousion in 1931.
Other members of John McCabe’s family held similar positions in art museums. John W. McCabe, Sr. was head of the carpenter shop at CMA in 1915-20. Richard McCabe, John Jr.’s brother, also worked in the superintendent's department at CMA, 1915-30. Another brother, Anthony E., was assistant superintendent at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1922-29, following James’ and John’s tenures there. For CMA’s Great Lakes exhibition in 1936, John Jr.’s four daughters worked with their father. One daughter, Virginia McCabe Griffin, continued as a part-time office assistant during World War II.
John Jr.’s position as superintendent at CMA entailed supervising a staff of forty (in peacetime) with responsibility for heating, lighting, ventilating, cleaning and guarding the museum; installing exhibitions; and packing and shipping priceless objects--enormous to tiny, borrowed or lent. He also directed cleaning and repairs to all art objects except paintings. In Boston McCabe made all casts of sculptures; he solved the problem of reproducing a prehistoric bowl with an intaglio pattern on the inside by making the first mold of jelly.
McCabe stated that the prize of his experience at CMA was its exhibition of the Guelph Treasure. It required a great deal more custom installation and protection. The exhibition proved so popular that the high traffic brought a great deal of dust into the galleries, necessitating extra cleaning of spaces and adjacent tapestries and other exposed artworks.
Upon McCabe’s retirement from CMA after thirty-eight years in 1956, the trustees of the museum presented him with a Buick station wagon and leather suitcase. He spent his retirement in Arizona during winters and summers at his Cleveland home, with road trips in the US. He died in 1974.
By Anne Cuyler Salsich, September 2024
Occupations
Found in 6 Collections and/or Records:
John W. McCabe, appointment as superintendent, 1922
John W. McCabe, personal correspondence, 1919-1925
McCabe, John and Virginia McCabe Griffen
McCabe, John - Farewell Tea
McCabe, John W.
North Facade - Measuring a Felled Tulip Tree [Joseph Kraynak, John McCabe, Gordon Roos], 1955
The Views series has been divided into two subseries. The first is exterior views. These are arranged by direction of the view, and then chronologically. This subseries also contains all Fine Arts Garden photographs. The second subseries is interiors. This includes photos of galleries and other spaces not included in the Registrar's Collection. They are arranged numerically for numbered galleries, then alphabetically for named spaces.