The Masinters have been among the Libraries Board’s most generous donors to date. The Masinters made a commitment to establish the Margery F. and Edgar M. Masinter Fund for the Acquisition and Preservation of Illustrated Books, a fund that will enable the Libraries to acquire and preserve illustrated works in all subject areas of the Libraries’ holdings. Libraries Director Nancy E. Gwinn called this pledge “an inspired and generous gift, showing clearly that Margery and Edgar Masinter understand the nature of our museum library collections and our need to continually enhance and protect our books for the use of future generations.
Margery F. Masinter of White Plains, New York holds a Master’s Degree in the History of Decorative Arts from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum/Parsons School of Design and is an active volunteer in both the Cooper-Hewitt Library and the Museum’s Drawings and Prints Department. She is a former trustee and past president of the Neuberger Museum of Art and a former trustee of the Westchester Arts Council, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum at Connecticut College, Grand Street Settlement in New York City, and Snake River Institute in Wilson, Wyoming and is a current trustee at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. In 2006, she worked closely with the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies in the creation and publication of The Grandparents’ Guide to the Smithsonian. Her husband, Edgar M. Masinter is a retired partner of Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett in New York City.
