Levy Gallery, Ground Floor
Main Building
Through photographs, documents, and artifacts, the rich history of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is recounted in honor of its 125th anniversary. Thematic sections take visitors on a path from the museum’s early beginnings as an outgrowth of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, through the construction of the new building on Fairmount and the foundation of its collections under Fiske Kimball, the museum’s director from 1925 to 1955.
Other institutions in the city that are, or were at one time, part of the museum “family“ are recognized: the University of the Arts, the Rodin Museum, the Fleisher Art Memorial, and the Fairmount Park Houses, Cedar Grove and Mount Pleasant. Glancing at the future, this installation looks at the museum’s growing collections and its acquisition of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building.
Showing the diversity of the museum experience and the human element, this exhibition draws heavily upon the museum archives but also includes items lent by other city institutions.