Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper, c.1932 by Charles C. Ebbets

This image was taken during the construction of the RCA building in 1932. The photo was taken from the 69th floor, and today, the fact that the men wore no saftety harnesses is daunting, but during the Great Depression of 1932, men were willing to take any job they could find, regardless of the risk.

Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper

FulcrumGallery.com
Circa 10/10/2002

FulcrumGallery.com is the inevitable outcome of a seemingly coincidental series of events which started in its founders, years before we ever met and started a business. Over time, a friendship, an interest in art and decorating, and a strong software development background led to the FulcrumGallery.com that exists today. As the old saying goes, "do what you love, and the money will follow."

Even so, we didn't actually plan to get into this business. As I like to say, it was more of an accident. We didn't sit down and look at the market landscape, deliberate over entry barriers, or consider strengths and weaknesses. In fact, we didn't even intend to be involved in e-commerce in any form at all. FulcrumGallery.com actually started off as a demo website for the software company we founded, Metaverse Corporation. Its purpose was to be an example of how easily a Web site could be updated using Metaverse's Content Management software. While many Content Management companies create a fictitious company for their demonstration Web site, we felt from the beginning that if we were to spend time creating a demonstration Web site, it should have some value on its own. Since we had a deep interest in art, we decided to build an art gallery.

On its launch date, October 10, 2002, the FulcrumGallery.com featured view-only artwork from famous artists. Salvador Dali, one of our personal favorites, was the first featured artist on the site. Since it was so easy to add artwork to the site, we quickly added a page letting visiting artists know they could submit their own artwork for display on the site. First slowly, then more and more frequently, artists started submitting their work. After hearing from several of our artists that they had received referrals from our site resulting in sales of their work, and hearing from art appreciators that they liked the artwork on our site, but were disappointed that there was no way to purchase the work, we decided to make the investment to turn FulcrumGallery.com into an online store and relaunched the site on September 26, 2003.

Initually we had only a couple hundred pieces of art for sale, all original art (mostly oil paintings). It wasn't until early 2004 that we expanded our product offering to a few thousand open edition fine-art prints. In October of 2004, we added our online Frame Shop, enabling customers to preview artwork with various high quality moldings and mats online. Today we offer a selection of over 200,000 works of art, encompassing nearly every imaginable subject matter, and offer a range of value added services such as custom framing and canvas transfers. We ship to thousands of customers each month, worldwide. We are a privately owned company operating in South Brunswick, New Jersey. FulcrumGallery.com exists because of the continued investment of its founders and employees. It is very much a work of blood, sweat, and tears. We take great pride in what we've created. If there's anything we can do to make your experience with us more enjoyable, please let us know.