Boston Art Commission is established.

Created by the Massachusetts legislature, it is the oldest municipal art commission in the U.S. The five-member board consists of the mayor of Boston, the president of the Trustees of the Public Library, president of the Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, president of the Boston Society of Architects, and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is replaced by an Art Department directed by a board of commissioners appointed by the mayor in 1898, then by an Art Commission within the city Administrative Services Department in 1953. It becomes part of the city Environmental Department in 1982, then a board within the city Office of Arts and Humanities in 1986.