With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collections of Italian Renaissance and European artwork assembled in the 20th century.

By the mid-1920s, he was living in a penthouse at 1020 Fifth Avenue in New York City, across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which he visited and contributed to regularly.

Eventually expanding to over 200 locations nationwide, Kress stores were long a familiar sight in many cities and towns of the United States.

The Kress chain was known for the fine architecture of the stores, with a number of locations being hailed by architects for their design.

The Kress Collection of Historic Images at the National Gallery of Art—more than 18,300 scans of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and decorative arts purchased or once considered for purchase by Samuel H. Kress and the foundation he established in 1929—has been digitized, making these significant holdings more accessible to researchers around the world through the Gallery’s department of image collections.

Kress donated most of these objects to 90 museums, colleges, and other institutions in 33 states, with the greater number of these gifts coming to the National Gallery of Art.

Photographs of Samuel Kress’s apartment in New York show 282 magnificent objects as they were arranged before their dispersal.

For instance, conservators routinely study these images in order to anticipate remnants of earlier damage or restorations.

Art historians may compare high resolution details to other known works by an artist to assist in attribution questions.