While still a student at Harvard, Lincoln Kirstein established the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art and co-founded a literary magazine called Hound & Horn. In 1934, he and George Balanchine founded the School of American Ballet and the Ballet Society -- later renamed New York City Ballet. During World War II, he used his vast knowledge of art as one of the "Monuments Men": arts intelligence officers with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section of the U.S. Military Government in Germany charged with recovering works of art stolen by the Nazis. After the war, Kirstein served for many years as the General Director of NYCB.
