Arthur Amory Houghton Jr. (December 12, 1906 – April 3, 1990)[1] was an American industrialist who served as the president of Steuben Glass Works, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic.
[5] Like his father before him, Houghton attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1925, and graduated from Harvard University in 1929.
In 1933, he began his forty-year service as president of Steuben Glass Works, a subsidiary of the Corning Company, where he is credited for a change of artistic direction toward more modern forms, which incorporated Art Deco and modernist themes.
[7] In 1942, he endowed Houghton Library at Harvard as a repository for the university's collections of rare books and manuscripts, and, later, donated Wye River, his plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where he bred Black Angus cattle, to the Aspen Institute, the international public policy organization, which is today the Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers.
When the College’s permanent library was completed on the Spencer Hill campus in May 1964, it was appropriately dedicated to Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.[1] In September 1964, Houghton was elected to replace Roland L. Redmond as the 10th president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,[9] and became chairman in 1969 (and serving until 1972).
He was succeeded as president by C. Douglas Dillon, a former investment banker who had worked with the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.
[1] On June 12, 1929, Houghton married Jane Olmsted (1909–1982) at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Harrisburg.
[10] Jane was the daughter of Gertrude (née Howard) McCormick and Marlin Edgar Olmsted, a Republican member of the U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania.
In 1949, Houghton was awarded permanent, honorary membership at The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.