In a modest brick apartment house on Staten Island, the antiques collector George Way crammed British and Dutch furniture and art to the ceiling, scarcely leaving circulation routes between 17th-century armchairs and old master portraits of noblewomen. Part of his collection is now going on view in the hands of new institutional owners, with wall texts paying tribute to Mr. Way, who died in June, at 69.

Known among dealers as the Oak Man, Mr. Way lent his collection to museums for three decades while working at a supermarket deli. “George was in the middle of many projects” to put more works on display when he suffered a fatal stroke, said Patrick Grenier, a historian and arts administrator who has helped about 15 institutions acquire material from Mr. Way’s now-empty apartment.

The New York State Museum in Albany will outfit its new Dutch Gallery with Mr. Way’s finds, including paintings of tavern scenes, green wine goblets, brass sconces decorated with cherubs, and Delft tiles depicting children at play. Labels will note Mr. Way’s role in the provenances: “He did such a remarkable job of bringing it all together,” said Jennifer Lemak, the museum’s chief curator of history.

In Jersey City, N.J., cooking tools, furniture and needlework from Mr. Way will go into a new museum at the Van Wagenen House. Dutch immigrants started building the stone residence in the 17th century on land bought from Lenape elders. Donations from the Way estate have arrived at “a very substantive moment, at the beginning of our collection,” said Gretchen Von Koenig, the museum’s curator. The objects will allow for “so many ways and narratives” of explaining what life in the house was like for the original owners and their two enslaved persons, she added.