Roerich Museum New York

“We were destined to be here, and this is very important, because our Museum is a link – namely the cultural link between the Soviet Union and America.”
Sina Fosdick

For many years we have cherished a dream about traveling to New York, to the Nicholas Roerich Museum, which was established through the efforts of the Roerichs’ most trusted co-workers, first among whom was Sinaida Grigoryevna Fosdick. We imagined how we would see the paintings of the great artist, the priceless materials in the Museum’s archives, and express in person our gratitude to all the coworkers with whom in all these years we were able to communicate only through letters, and who steadfastly helped our Siberian Roerich Society. Our requests to them over the years were always responded to, and they never failed to send us all materials that we asked for.

During the time that the Novosibirsk Roerich Museum was under construction, there was no chance to visit the New York Roerich Museum, but when the construction was finished the possibility appeared.

In the official invitation sent to SibRO by the Director of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York, Daniel Entin wrote, “We would like to invite you to come to visit us, to see how we work, to examine the materials in our archives, and to lay the groundwork for any future joint projects. We look forward to a positive response”.

Thanks to the help of friends, to which the collective of the Siberian Roerich Society expresses its great appreciation, this trip was made possible, and our small group of three people flew out to New York on the 7th of March.

The two weeks that we spent there flew by as if in an instant, but we are still pondering upon all that we saw and felt. Knowing how many of our friends are waiting for our report about the trip, after hearing such requests as “Tell us at least something, everything is important, every little thing” – we prepared this material to be published in our magazine, and also on SibRO’s website.

The story of acquiring the building situated on 107th street for the present Museum can be fully reconstructed through the correspondence of Helena Roerich addressed to Sina Fosdick in America in 1948-1949. The Master through Helena Ivanovna instructed the group of faithful disciples to purchase this particular building.

“When a house is for rent, even the crudest people will inspect every corner and express their feelings. Could We, then, place our disciples in uninspected dwellings? One must be aware of everything that surrounds one. One must sense all stratifications of the past before striving into the future”, – says the Teaching of the Living Ethics (Heart, 490).