The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on Staten Island was founded to introduce Western audiences to the cultural and spiritual traditions of Tibet and the Himalayan region. Developed from Jacques Marchais’s collecting and study of Himalayan material, it evolved from a Manhattan gallery in 1938 and a research library established beside her home in 1945 into a museum that opened in 1947. Marchais designed the site to resemble a rustic Himalayan monastery, making its gardens and pond part of the experience. Later praised by the Dalai Lama in 1991, the museum remained a distinctive cultural destination and was added to the state and national historic registers in 2009.