Dr. A.C. Barnes made his fortune marketing patent medicine in “Mainline” Philadelphia. In establishing the Barnes Foundation, he sought to use art as a tool to teach students how to think critically. To that end, from 1912 until his death in 1951, Barnes purchased hundreds of works of art – from Impressionists to African masks – which he arranged into “ensembles” at his purpose-built gallery in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.