MITCHELL WOLFSON, JR.

MUSEUM FOUNDER
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After decades of collecting objects representative of British, North American, German, Italian and Dutch design, Mitchell Wolfson Jr. founded the museum bearing his name. The interior furnishings, paintings and sculpture, books, prints and posters, Wolfson felt, told the intriguing story of the enormous social, political and technological changes sweeping the world during the period of 1885 to 1945.

Wolfson housed his collection in the Washington Storage Building in Miami Beach, a 1926 Mediterranean Revival warehouse, but after amassing thousands of objects he outgrew the space. After years of being its most important tenant, he purchased the building 1985 and in 1992 expanded and renovated it to become a seven-story, 56,000-square-foot facility. In 1997 Wolfson donated the collection and the building to Florida International University. 

In 1986 Wolfson founded the Wolfsonian Foundation for Decorative and Propaganda Arts, the organization that originally published The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, acclaimed for its scholarly essays on late 19th to mid-20th century visual culture. The Journal is now published by The Wolfsonian–Florida International University; its 25th and most recent issue is devoted to examining the large American hotel of that era.
Born in Miami in 1939, Wolfson is president of The Wolfson Initiative, Washington Storage Company Inc., and the international investment firm Novecento Corp. He is chairman of The Wolfsonian-FIU Advisory Board, and is a member of the Florida International University Board of Directors. He also sits on the boards of several civic and philanthropic organizations in South Florida and around the world, with an emphasis on education. Wolfson is a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Serves on the Chairman’s Circle of the American Friends of the Louvre, New York. He is also a member of the International Council of Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France.

A graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Wolfson serves on the advisory council of the Department of Comparative Literature. He is also a member of the advisory council of the Paul N. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center.

Wolfson is a trustee for the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation, and the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation (which supports and maintains the Audubon House and Gardens in Key West, Florida).

He graduated from Princeton University in 1963 with a degree in comparative literature and remains involved on the advisory council of Princeton’s Comparative Literature department. He also received a master’s degree in international relations from Paul N. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center.

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