The New York Historical announces major expansion with Tang Wing

It’s about time.

The New York Historical announced Tuesday that its long-awaited expansion dedicated to US history will open this summer — and just in time for the US’s blockbuster 250th birthday.

The revolutionary Tang Wing for American Democracy will house a sprawling art gallery, a state-of-the-art conservation lab, a rooftop garden, massive classrooms and the first-ever American LGBTQ+ Museum.

“This wing shall rise as a self-evident embodiment of the American revolution from our humble beginnings as the world’s first modern democracy to the world’s longest continuous democracy,” said archeologist Agnes Hsu-Tang, the chair of the board of trustees whose family’s massive donation made the new wing possible.

The New York Historical, which dropped “Society” from its name last year, offered a sneak peek into the brand new 71,000-square-foot space on Tuesday — six months ahead of its June 18 opening day.

The Tang Wing is still very much under construction, with just the bare bones of the massive rooms and classroom spaces taking shape — eagerly awaiting paintings to adorn its walls and visitors to flood its space.

The expansion is decades in the making, with numerous proposals, including one that saw condominiums stacked on top of the landmarked museum, failing to break beyond the discussion phase.

The Tang Wing is being constructed behind the original building and does not exceed the museum’s original height.

It cost roughly $360 million to bring to life, thanks in part to a $125 million donation by Hsu-Tang and her husband, Oscar Tang, whose philanthropy is also responsible for the Tang Center for Early China at Columbia University, the Hsu-Tang Library for Classical Chinese Literature at Oxford University and more.

When completed, the Tang Wing will house a series of exhibitions dedicated to America’s 250th anniversary — which will be celebrated in the Big Apple with a massive week-long blustbuster party.

The brand new Klingenstein Family Gallery will host a “Democracy Matters” showcase involving key objects from the museum’s history that show how democracy has stretched and shifted throughout the centuries, while a “Revolutionary Women” series will explore the trailblazing females whose contributions to the war effort have been little recognized.

Crucially, the opening will allow The New York Historical to expand the number of students it serves through its four-day-long intensive class each year tenfold, from 3,000 to 30,000 annually.

“This transformative new wing embodies The Historical’s mission of illuminating the complexities of the American story and inspiring engagement with the ideas and principles that define it,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer.

“As we approach the nation’s 250th anniversary, the Tang Wing will serve as both a beacon for civic learning and a space for reflection on the values that continue to shape our democracy.