Mead Art Museum
Encyclopedia
Mead Art Museum is an art museum associated with Amherst College
in Amherst, Massachusetts
and is a member of Museums10
.
The Mead Art Museum has a wide ranging collection of over 16,000 items, with a particular strength in American art, including notable works of the Hudson River School
and woodcut artist J. J. Lankes
, as well as a wide range of European, Japanese, and Ancient art. Mead is currently developing a significant collection of Russian Modernist works, complimenting the collections of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture
. The works in the Museum's collection can be searched on the database maintained by the Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield
.http://museums.fivecolleges.edu/main.php?module=objects
Notable benefactors include Herbert L. Pratt
. Pratt was an art collector, particularly portraits and miniatures. When Rotherwas Court, Herefordshire, was dismantled and auctioned in 1913, Pratt purchased the dining room for his neo-Jacobean mansion "The Braes," then under construction. His bequest to Amherst College included the Rotherwas Room and over eighty American portraits and miniatures, as well as an extensive collection of decorative arts. The Rotherwas Room was incorporated into the Mead Art Museum when it was built at Amherst College in 1949.
The museum is named after William Rutherford Mead
, co-founder of the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead and White, who graduated from Amherst in 1867.
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
in Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
and is a member of Museums10
Museums10
Museums10 is a consortium of art, science, and history museums in Western Massachusetts. It is composed of museums from the Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield.-Art museums:*The Mead Art Museum...
.
The Mead Art Museum has a wide ranging collection of over 16,000 items, with a particular strength in American art, including notable works of the Hudson River School
Hudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
and woodcut artist J. J. Lankes
J. J. Lankes
Julius John Lankes was an illustrator, a woodcut print artist, author, and college professor.-Early life and education:Lankes was born on August 31, 1884 in Buffalo, New York to parents of German heritage. His father worked in a lumber mill and brought home small scraps of wood...
, as well as a wide range of European, Japanese, and Ancient art. Mead is currently developing a significant collection of Russian Modernist works, complimenting the collections of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture
Amherst Center for Russian Culture
The Amherst Center for Russian Culture was created by Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts after the gift of a major collection of Russian books, manuscripts, periodicals and ephemera by Thomas P. Whitney in 1991. The Center has a particularly strong collection of works by and relating to...
. The works in the Museum's collection can be searched on the database maintained by the Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield
Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield
The Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield is a consortium of museums in Western Massachusetts and includes art museums which are part of the Five Colleges as well as Historic Deerfield. The Five College Museums maintains a searchable database of the collections of the museums that is among the...
.http://museums.fivecolleges.edu/main.php?module=objects
Notable benefactors include Herbert L. Pratt
Herbert L. Pratt
Herbert Lee Pratt was an American businessman and a leading figure in the United States oil industry.- Early life :...
. Pratt was an art collector, particularly portraits and miniatures. When Rotherwas Court, Herefordshire, was dismantled and auctioned in 1913, Pratt purchased the dining room for his neo-Jacobean mansion "The Braes," then under construction. His bequest to Amherst College included the Rotherwas Room and over eighty American portraits and miniatures, as well as an extensive collection of decorative arts. The Rotherwas Room was incorporated into the Mead Art Museum when it was built at Amherst College in 1949.
The museum is named after William Rutherford Mead
William Rutherford Mead
William Rutherford Mead was an American architect, and was the "Center of the Office" of McKim, Mead, and White, a noted Gilded Age architectural firm. The firm's other two founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , and Stanford White .-Life and career:Mead was born in Brattleboro, Vermont...
, co-founder of the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead and White, who graduated from Amherst in 1867.
See also
- List of Museums in the United States