BRADFORD KELLEHER (1920–2007)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that Bradford Kelleher, whose marketing ideas for the museum’s first full-blown gift shop became a model for nonprofit institutions around the world, has died in Riverhead, New York. The Los Angeles Times notes that, under Kelleher’s supervision, the museum’s business grew from “little more than a rack of postcards” to include a large selection of decorative art objects based on the museum’s collection. Today, the merchandising business nets the museum more than one million dollars a year, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Kelleher was hired by the museum in 1949. During his tenure, he helped expand the museum’s mail-order catalog, its satellite sales shops around the world, and its publication of scholarly and general-interest books on art. Kelleher was named the museum’s publisher in 1972 and vice president in 1978. He retired in 1986 but served as a consultant to the museum until his death.
