Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

May, Saidie Adler, 1879-1951 print view role Collector Patron Artist dates 1879-1951 city New York City state NY other cities Baltimore, MD; sex F historical notes Saidie Adler May was an art collector, patron, and artist who studied with Hans Hoffman (1880–1966). She was a benefactor of the Baltimore Museum of Art. May’s father, Charles Adler (1839–1915),was a Baltimore shoe manufacturer, and her mother was Caroline Frank Adler (1842–1899). May’s sister, Blanche Adler (1877–1941), and cousins, Claribel (1864–1929) and Etta Cone (1870–1949), were fellow art collectors. May collected modern art, she was an early investor in both Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist art and her collection included work by, among others, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, William Baziotes, Robert Motherwell, André Masson, Hans Hoffman and Alfred Julio Jensen. May bequeathed and made donations during her life to the Baltimore Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She was most generous with the Baltimore Museum of Art. She gave them $300,000 for a wing dedicated to children, art and furnishings from her Park Lane apartment in New York, and made the contribution of the Renaissance Room purchased from William Randolph Hearst (including sculpture of St. Catherine of Alexandria and Giovannidal Ponté’s “St, Anthoney’s Abbot”). She was married twice, and both marriages ended in divorce. In 1902, to Albert Carl Lehman (1878–1935) the Pittsburgh, PA, steel industrialist (Blaw-Knox Steel Company) and art patron (founder of the Albert C. Lehman Prize at the International Art Exhibit, Carnegie Institute), the couple had a son, Murray C. Lehman (1905–1981). In 1922, she married Herbert Louis May (1877–1966), and they were divorced by 1937. decades of activity 1900-1910 1910-1920 1920-1930 1930-1940 1940-1950 updated 03/22/2024 12:09:29 bibliographic search Search Frick Art Reference Library Catalog Search Photoarchive Search Worldcat Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Search Wikidata Entry Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details Baltimore Museum of Art The E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library Saidie A. May papers, ca. 1880-2002, bulk 1924-1972. see details... Baltimore Museum of Art The E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library Saidie May Artist file: miscellaneous uncataloged material. see details... Baltimore Museum of Art The E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library Renaissance Room Exhibition see details... Baltimore Museum of Art The E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library BMA Building and Exhibitions Lantern Slides see details... see also: Adler, Blanche, 1877-1941 Jensen, Alfred, 1903-1981 Cone, Claribel, 1864-1929 Cone, Etta Cone, Frederic W. «  back