<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walters Art Museum</span>

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Walters Art Museum" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR  (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Walters Art Museum

<p><b>Walters Art Museum</b> is a public <a href="/en/Art_museum" title="Art museum" class="wl">art museum</a> located in the <a href="/en/Mount_Vernon,_Baltimore" title="Mount Vernon, Baltimore" class="wl">Mount Vernon section</a> of <a href="/en/Baltimore" title="Baltimore" class="wl">Baltimore</a>, <a href="/en/Maryland" title="Maryland" class="wl">Maryland</a>. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were  amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, including <a href="/en/William_Thompson_Walters" title="William Thompson Walters" class="wl">William Thompson Walters</a> and his son <a href="/en/Henry_Walters" title="Henry Walters" class="wl">Henry Walters</a>. William Walters began collecting when he moved to <a href="/en/Paris" title="Paris" class="wl">Paris</a> as a nominal <a href="/en/Confederate_States_of_America" title="Confederate States of America" class="wl">Confederate loyalist</a> at the outbreak of the <a href="/en/American_Civil_War" title="American Civil War" class="wl">American Civil War</a> in 1861, and <a href="/en/Henry_Walters" title="Henry Walters" class="wl">Henry Walters</a> refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction what ultimately was Walters Art Museum. </p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Art museum in Baltimore, Maryland, US</div>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1097763485" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}html.client-js body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .mbox-text-span{margin-left:23px!important}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}</style>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><div class='mobile-collapse'><header class="mobile-collapse-header mobile-collapse-btn"><b>Quick facts: Former name, Established, Location, Coordinat...</b> <span class='arrow'>▼</span></header> <table class="infobox vcard mobile-collapse-element"><caption class="infobox-title fn org">The Walters Art Museum</caption><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span><a href="/en/File:Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png/100px-Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="153" data-file-height="117" data-file-type="bitmap" height="76" width="100" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png/150px-Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png 2x" alt="Walters_Art_Museum_logo.png"></a></span></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span><a href="/en/File:Walters-museum-building_1.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Walters-museum-building_1.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Walters-museum-building_1.jpg/250px-Walters-museum-building_1.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="2160" data-file-height="1434" data-file-type="bitmap" height="166" width="250" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Walters-museum-building_1.jpg/375px-Walters-museum-building_1.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Walters-museum-building_1.jpg/500px-Walters-museum-building_1.jpg 2x" alt="Walters-museum-building_1.jpg"></a></span><div class="infobox-caption">The main entrance to the museum on North Charles Street in <a href="/en/Baltimore" title="Baltimore" class="wl">Baltimore</a></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><a class="mw-kartographer-map mw-kartographer-container center" style="width: 250px; height: 200px;" data-mw-kartographer="" data-style="osm-intl" data-width="250" data-height="200" data-zoom="12" data-overlays="[&quot;_291e0f4131e5c4426da88bde58569fe465464161&quot;]"><img loading="lazy"src="https://maps.wikimedia.org/img/osm-intl,12,a,a,250x200.png?lang=en&amp;domain=en.wikipedia.org&amp;title=Walters+Art+Museum&amp;revid=1144831175&amp;groups=_291e0f4131e5c4426da88bde58569fe465464161" alt="Map" width="250" height="200" decoding="async" srcset="https://maps.wikimedia.org/img/osm-intl,12,a,a,250x200@2x.png?lang=en&amp;domain=en.wikipedia.org&amp;title=Walters+Art+Museum&amp;revid=1144831175&amp;groups=_291e0f4131e5c4426da88bde58569fe465464161 2x"></a><div class="infobox-caption">Interactive fullscreen map</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Former name</div></th><td class="infobox-data nickname">The Walters Art Gallery</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Established</th><td class="infobox-data">1934<span style="display:none"><span>&nbsp;</span>(<span class="bday dtstart published updated">1934</span>)</span></td></tr><tr class="adr"><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Location</th><td class="infobox-data locality"><a href="/en/Mount_Vernon,_Baltimore" title="Mount Vernon, Baltimore" class="wl">Mount Vernon-Belvedere</a>, <a href="/en/Baltimore" title="Baltimore" class="wl">Baltimore</a>, <a href="/en/Maryland" title="Maryland" class="wl">Maryland</a>, U.S.</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/en/Geographic_coordinate_system" title="Geographic coordinate system" class="wl">Coordinates</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1073938472" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles">.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}</style><span class="plainlinks nourlexpansion"><a rel="mw:ExtLink" href="//geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Walters_Art_Museum&amp;params=39_17_48_N_76_36_58_W_type:landmark" class="external text" target="_blank"><span class="geo-default"><span class="geo-dms"><span class="latitude">39°17′48″N</span> <span class="longitude">76°36′58″W</span></span></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Type</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/Art_museum" title="Art museum" class="wl">Art museum</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Director</th><td class="infobox-data agent"><a href="/en/Julia_Marciari-Alexander" title="Julia Marciari-Alexander" class="wl">Julia Marciari-Alexander</a> (2016)<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-:0_1-0"><a href="#cite_note-:0-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Public transit access</th><td class="infobox-data"><span><a href="/en/Baltimore_Light_RailLink" title="Baltimore Light RailLink" class="image wl"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/BSicon_TRAM.svg/14px-BSicon_TRAM.svg.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="500" data-file-height="500" data-file-type="drawing" height="14" width="14" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/BSicon_TRAM.svg/21px-BSicon_TRAM.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/BSicon_TRAM.svg/28px-BSicon_TRAM.svg.png 2x" alt="BSicon_TRAM.svg"></a></span> at <a href="/en/Mount_Vernon_station_(Light_RailLink)" title="Mount Vernon station (Light RailLink)" class="mw-redirect wl">Mount Vernon station</a> <br> <a href="/en/BaltimoreLink" title="BaltimoreLink" class="mw-redirect wl">BaltimoreLink</a> routes Green, Pink, Silver, 51, 95, 103, 410, 411 <br> <a href="/en/Charm_City_Circulator" title="Charm City Circulator" class="wl">Charm City Circulator</a> Purple Route</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Website</th><td class="infobox-data"><span class="url"><a rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow" href="https://thewalters.org/" class="external text" target="_blank">thewalters<wbr>.org</a></span> <span class="mw-valign-text-top noprint"><a href="/en/Q210081#P856" title="Edit this at Wikidata" class="image wl"><img loading="lazy"alt="Edit this at Wikidata" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/10px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="20" data-file-height="20" data-file-type="drawing" height="10" width="10" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/15px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/20px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 2x"></a></span></td></tr></tbody></table> <footer class='mobile-collapse-footer mobile-collapse-btn'><b>Close</b> <span class='arrow'>▲</span></footer></div>

<p>After allowing the Baltimore public to occasionally view his father's and his growing added collections at his West Mount Vernon Place mansion during the late 1800s, Henry Walters arranged for an elaborate stone <a href="/en/Palazzo" title="Palazzo" class="mw-redirect wl">palazzo</a>-styled structure to be built for this purpose in 1905–1909, located a block south of the Walters mansion on West Monument Street/Mount Vernon Place, on the northwest corner of <a href="/en/Charles_Street_(Baltimore)" title="Charles Street (Baltimore)" class="wl">North Charles Street</a> at West Centre Street.</p>

<p>The mansion and gallery were also just south and west of the landmark <a href="/en/Washington_Monument_(Baltimore)" title="Washington Monument (Baltimore)" class="wl">Washington Monument</a> in the  <a href="/en/Mount_Vernon,_Baltimore" title="Mount Vernon, Baltimore" class="wl">Mount Vernon-Belvedere</a> neighborhood, just north of the downtown business district and northeast of Cathedral Hill. Upon his 1931 death, Henry Walters bequeathed the entire collection of then more than 22,000 works, the original <a href="/en/Charles_Street_(Baltimore)" title="Charles Street (Baltimore)" class="wl">Charles Street</a> Gallery building, and his adjacent townhouse/mansion just across the alley to the north on West Mount Vernon Place to the City of Baltimore, "for the benefit of the public." The collection includes masterworks of <a href="/en/Ancient_Egypt" title="Ancient Egypt" class="wl">ancient Egypt</a>, <a href="/en/Ancient_Greece" title="Ancient Greece" class="wl">Greek</a> sculpture and <a href="/en/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome" class="wl">Roman</a> sarcophagi, <a href="/en/Medieval" title="Medieval" class="mw-redirect wl">medieval</a> ivories, illuminated manuscripts, <a href="/en/Renaissance" title="Renaissance" class="wl">Renaissance</a> bronzes, Old Master European and 19th-century paintings, <a href="/en/China" title="China" class="wl">Chinese</a> ceramics and bronzes, <a href="/en/Art_Deco" title="Art Deco" class="wl">Art Deco</a> jewelry, and ancient Near East, <a href="/en/Mesopotamia" title="Mesopotamia" class="wl">Mesopotamian</a>, or ancient <a href="/en/Middle_East" title="Middle East" class="wl">Middle East</a> items. <a href="/en/Dorothy_Miner_(historian)" title="Dorothy Miner (historian)" class="wl">Dorothy Miner</a> became its first Keeper of Manuscripts in 1934 and held the post until her death in 1973.</p>

<p>In 2000, "The Walters Art Gallery" changed its long-time name to "The Walters Art Museum"<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-:0_1-1"><a href="#cite_note-:0-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span> to reflect its image as a large public institution and eliminate confusion among some of the increasing out-of-state visitors. The following year, "The Walters" (as it is often known locally) reopened its original main building after a dramatic three-year physical renovation and replacement of internal utilities and infrastructure. The <a href="/en/Archimedes_Palimpsest" title="Archimedes Palimpsest" class="wl">Archimedes Palimpsest</a> was on loan to the Walters Art Museum from a private collector for conservation and spectral imaging studies.</p>

<p>Starting on October 1, 2006, the museum was enabled to make admission free to all, year-round, as a result of substantial grants given by Baltimore City and the surrounding suburban <a href="/en/Baltimore_County" title="Baltimore County" class="mw-redirect wl">Baltimore County</a> arts agencies and authorities.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[2]</span></a></span>  In 2012, "The Walters" released nearly 20,000 of its own images of its collections on a <a href="/en/Creative_Commons_license" title="Creative Commons license" class="wl">Creative Commons license</a>, and collaborated in  their upload to the <a href="/en/World-wide_web" title="World-wide web" class="mw-redirect wl">world-wide web</a> and the <a href="/en/Internet" title="Internet" class="wl">Internet</a> on <a href="/en/Wikimedia_Commons" title="Wikimedia Commons" class="wl">Wikimedia Commons</a>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-images_3-0"><a href="#cite_note-images-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span> This was one of the largest and most comprehensive such releases made by any museum.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-images_3-1"><a href="#cite_note-images-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span></p>



Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were  amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, including William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. William Walters began collecting when he moved to Paris as a nominal Confederate loyalist at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and Henry Walters refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction what ultimately was Walters Art Museum.  After allowing the Baltimore public to occasionally view his father's and his growing added collections at his West Mount Vernon Place mansion during the late 1800s, Henry Walters arranged for an elaborate stone palazzo-styled structure to be built for this purpose in 1905–1909, located a block south of the Walters mansion on West Monument Street/Mount Vernon Place, on the northwest corner of North Charles Street at West Centre Street. The mansion and gallery were also just south and west of the landmark Washington Monument in the  Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood, just north of the downtown business district and northeast of Cathedral Hill. Upon his 1931 death, Henry Walters bequeathed the entire collection of then more than 22,000 works, the original Charles Street Gallery building, and his adjacent townhouse/mansion just across the alley to the north on West Mount Vernon Place to the City of Baltimore, "for the benefit of the public." The collection includes masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master European and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, Art Deco jewelry, and ancient Near East, Mesopotamian, or ancient Middle East items. Dorothy Miner became its first Keeper of Manuscripts in 1934 and held the post until her death in 1973. 