Glossary · Culture
Crocker Art Museum
The oldest art museum in the western United States, founded in 1885 around the Crocker family’s picture gallery.
The Crocker Art Museum was founded in 1885 and holds one of the premier collections of Californian art, along with European master drawings, a large international ceramics collection and Asian, African and Oceanic art.
It began as the private gallery of Judge Edwin B. Crocker and his wife Margaret, who collected during a European trip in 1869–1871 and built an Italianate gallery beside their home at Third and O Streets. Their collection of 694 paintings was then the largest private collection in the country. A large new building opened on October 10, 2010.
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Questions people ask
How old is the Crocker Art Museum?
It was founded in 1885 and is the oldest art museum in the western United States.
Who founded it?
The collection was assembled by Edwin B. and Margaret Crocker; after his death in 1875 Margaret loaned the gallery to the California Museum Association, which held its first exhibition there in 1885 and later received the gift of the space.
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