Rooted in historic holdings that celebrate the rich, diverse artistic and cultural heritage of Essex County, Massachusetts, the collection has continued to grow to embrace a broader representation of the art of this country. Together, these works tell compelling stories of American life and the ongoing cultural exchanges between the people of the region, the country and the wider world.

American painting has been present in the museum’s collection since the first acquisitions of the East India Marine Society, when a group of Salem ship captains began exhibiting the fine and decorative art of the United States as well as art by Indigenous North Americans. The painting collection grew in earnest with the founding of the Essex Institute in 1821, which became a national leader in the preservation, interpretation and scholarship of American history, art and cultural experiences through the 20th century.

An early focus on portraits of prominent local people in a variety of mediums led to a wide-ranging collection of portraiture by masters such as Robert Feke, Benjamin Blyth, John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent and Salem’s Frank Weston Benson, as well as depth in works by American women artists such as Fidelia Bridges and Grace Hartigan. Sheila and Samuel Robbins’ 2015 gift of 70 paintings expanded the museum’s historical holdings of artists with strong connections to New England. Three years later, gifts from the Carolyn and Peter Lynch collection brought the first works by Childe Hassam and Georgia O’Keeffe into the collection. Major acquisitions of contemporary art, including Alison Saar’s Weight and Hank Willis Thomas’s Rich Black Specimen #460, exemplify the trajectory of collecting American art at PEM and enable us to tell more complex stories of the intersection of art and human experience in the United States.

The vital contributions of American artists can also be found across other collecting areas at the museum, including photography, Native American art, maritime art, contemporary art, fashion and textiles, and even European and Asian export art, in light of the many ways that global artistic traditions have shaped American aesthetics, media and tastes. In recent years, through acquisitions and exhibitions, PEM has also recognized that the field of American art must account for not only Euro-American traditions but also Native American artists, as well as African American and African Diasporic, Asian American and Latin American artists in the United States.