In 1922 Charlotte Partridge introduced a bold, Modernist vision to the Layton Art Gallery. Only two years before, she had founded the Layton School of Art in the gallery’s basement. Her appointment as curator of the gallery was notable for its time, when few women occupied senior positions at American art museums. By the 1940s, she was one of the most respected art educators in the country. Modernism emerged as the dominant philosophy in the arts after 1930. Its embrace of visual abstraction and psychological expression displaced the nineteenth-century emphasis on history, classical learning, realistic portrayal, and narrative. Partridge had a strong commitment to Modernism and, during a top-to-bottom makeover of the Layton Gallery, she removed dozens of Victorian paintings, covered the dark maroon walls in a light tan, and replaced the salon-style hang with works displayed at eye height in a line around the room. These radical changes, which predated the Modernist “white cube” made famous by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, transformed the way visitors experienced art in the gallery.