Taylor, Francis Henry (1903–1957)

US museum director. He was director of the Worcester Museum of Art (1931–40), which he turned into the best small city museum in America. As director of the Metropolitan Museum (1940–55), he undertook a series of international loans from European collections that were unsettled during World War II; the museum's attendance soared and its membership almost tripled.

Taylor was born in Philadelphia. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1924) and various other institutions. He was the assistant curator (1927–28) and then the curator of medieval art (1928–31) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He wrote The Taste of Angels (1948).