by Rick Blaine

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

When a benefactor first established an endowment for the New Britain Institute to purchase art for its library, the fund generated just $875 per year. But from those humble beginnings, one of the largest and most influential museums in New England was built. Today, with a spectacular new $26 million home, the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut is at the forefront of America's modern art movement.

Because of its modest means when it opened in 1903, a New York gallery owner advising the museum's board suggested that it concentrate on collecting American art rather than more expensive European works. As a result, the New Britain museum became the first museum in the country dedicated solely to American art.

Another philanthropist's gift of a stone mansion and a larger endowment in 1937 allowed the Institute to move the collection from the library and open it to the public. For two decades, the Art Museum of the New Britain Institute flourished - expanding its collection and aggressively borrowing works from other museums for local exhibition.

In the late 1950s, a half century after it purchased its first painting, the museum established its own identity separate from the Institute. The renamed New Britain Museum of American Art made its debut.

Through the years, the museum has amassed a 5,000-piece collection of important American works from the colonial period to the present. Early American works by such artists as John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull and Gilbert Stuart represent the federal period in the early years of American independence. Fine examples of the Hudson River school, including landscape paintings by Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, are also in the museum's permanent collection.

The museum also offers a number of late-19th century works by American artists such as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins.

Of particular note, given its rich history in Connecticut, is the museum's wide-ranging collection of American impressionists, including works by John Henry Twachtman, J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam - all of whom lived and worked in the state.

Twentieth century artists are also well represented, with paintings by famed American artists such as Grant Wood, Georgia O'Keefe, Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton. The New Britain Museum of American Art is also to a collection of over 1,400 illustrations by artists such as Norman Rockwell, considered one of the finest and most unique such collections anywhere.

In 2006, a new 43,000 square foot building greatly expanded the museum, adding ten new state-of-the-art galleries. With this investment, the New Britain Museum of American Art committed to a program of art and education for a second century of visitors from Connecticut and across New England.

The New Britain Museum of American Art is located at 56 Lexington Street in New Britain, off Connecticut Route 9, twelve miles southwest of Hartford. The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays year round. Guided tours are available on a number of different themes.

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