The Charles Cary Rumsey Gallery is named for sculptor Charles Cary Rumsey (1879-1922), who bears the names of two prominent Buffalo families. Rumsey's relatives derived their wealth from tanning and railroad businesses, and some became sculptors. The artistic Cary family included George Cary, an architect who designed the New York State pavilion for the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 (now occupied by the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society), and painters Evelyn Rumsey Cary, his aunt, and Evelyn Rumsey Lord, his sister.  Trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition in Paris and Boston, Charles Cary Rumsey worked in stone and bronze and secured several public commissions including the frieze on the Manhattan Bridge in New York City (1916).  He was developing an Art Deco approach before his untimely death in an automobile accident.