Library Guides: ART391: Bronze Age Art: Local Museums

Preparing to Research with Museums

Here are some tips to help you with your research the next time you are visiting and working with an artwork or object in a museum's collection:

Check out the museum's website. Many museums' websites include additional information about the artifacts and artworks they have exhibited, a good starting point for your research.
See if they have a library or archive. Libraries and archives housed within museums can be extremely helpful when conducting research on a specific object. Archives can have information specific to an object, including detailed notes, provenance, correspondence from previous owners, and other information.
Take photos. Typically, museums will allow visitors to photograph works and objects in a museum as long as the museum owns them. Objects that are being loaned from other institutions can be off-limits to photographs, so be sure to ask. Also, flash photography is generally not allowed in museums, as the light may damage light-sensitive works, and it can be distracting to other museum visitors.
Sketch away! Some museums will allow visitors to sketch (or even sometimes paint) within the galleries. Be sure to check the museum's website or call before you visit to verify their policies on such activities.

Museums

Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture
The Nabb Research Center houses over 15,000 objects from the Colonial era through the present day, including photographs, archaeological materials, furniture, vintage clothing and coverlets, household items, tools, and military memorabilia. The Center is a remarkable resource for understanding the people and places of the Eastern Shore and all of Delmarva.
The Museum of Eastern Shore Culture
The Museum of Eastern Shore Culture cultivates the preservation and expression of the cultural heritage and traditional arts of Delmarva’s various communities.
Nanticoke Indian Museum
Displays include thousands of arrowheads, pottery, axe hammers, and other objects, all of which are homemade.
Seaford Museum
It begins with the area’s natural resources and the Nanticoke Indians, and winds its way through history to the 21st century with the world’s first synthetic fiber, a nylon spinning machine. Other exhibits focus on early agriculture, shipbuilding, canning, the poultry industry, railroads, Black River Pilots, and the Nanticoke River’s connection with the Chesapeake Bay. Must email admin@seafordhistoricalsociety.com to schedule tour
Delmarva Discovery Museum
Exhibits feature the natural and cultural histories of Delmarva. We offer educational programs for school groups, Scouts, summer camps, and other youth organizations. For adult groups, we offer guided tours of our extensive exhibits.
Furnace Town Historic Site
With our collection of historic 19th century buildings & artisans’ studios surrounding the Nassawango Iron Furnace, we are a learning center for the study of history, art, and nature.
Museum of Chincoteague Island
Inside the Museum of Chincoteague Island you’ll discover the 1st Order Fresnel Lens from the Assateague Island Lighthouse, the iconic Chincoteague ponies known as Misty and Stormy, models of vessels that plied the Chincoteague waters long ago, items that washed ashore from shipwrecks, a decoy carver’s workshop, and oral histories, documents, and artifacts that tell the story of Chincoteague Island life throughout it’s long and varied existence.

African Art Museum of Maryland
In Fulton, MD. The African Art Museum of Maryland (AAMM) collects, exhibits, and preserves for the public, treasured objects reflecting traditional societies from Morocco to South Africa and from Senegal to Somalia.
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. The BMA has 95,000+ works of art—including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world. The collection includes American and European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; prints and drawings from the 15th century to the present; works by established and emerging contemporary artists; and objects from Africa and Asia.
The Mitchell Gallery at St. John's College
In Annapolis, MD. Exhibitions have included works of celebrated artists such as Bruegel, Calder, Rembrandt, Rodin, Motherwell and Johns, exhibitions of unique historical and regional interest, such as photography by A. Aubrey Bodine and Marion Warren and The National Craft Show.

Biggs Museum of American Art
In Dover, DE. The permanent collection includes paintings with highlights by the Peale family, Albert Bierstadt, Gilbert Stuart, and Childe Hassam; sculptures by Hiram Powers; images by Brandywine School illustrator, Frank E. Schoonover; early-American cabinetry; and one of the finest collections of regional silver in the country.
Winterthur Museum, Gallery and Library
In Wintethur, DE. Winterthur’s collection of nearly 90,000 objects features decorative and fine arts made or used in America from 1630 to 1860. The collection is organized in several main categories— ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, paintings and prints, and textiles and needlework. Famous for its American artwork, the collection is amplified with objects from other regions of the world, illustrating the active role America played in the international market.

National Museum of the American Indian
A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is an institute of Harvard University dedicated to supporting scholarship internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships, meetings, exhibitions, and publications.
National Museum of African Art
The National Museum of African Art is home to various artistic expressions of Africa, from the ancient to contemporary times.

The Barnes Foundation
In Philadelphia, PA. The Barnes holds important examples of African sculpture and Native American ceramics, jewelry and textiles, American paintings and decorative arts and antiquities from the Mediterranean region and Asia.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has collections of more than 227,000 objects that include European and American paintings, prints, drawings, and decorative arts. Also included in the collection are East Asian and South Asian art, and costumes and textiles. The Rodin Museum, which holds the largest collection of the sculptor's works outside Paris, is also part of the PMA.
New York City's American Museum of Natural History
In NEW YORK CITY, The Hall of Mexico and Central America features the diverse art, architecture, and traditions of Mesoamerican pre-Columbian cultures through artifacts that span from 1200 BC to the early 1500s.
University of Pennsylvania
Our galleries celebrate the incredible and diverse accomplishments of people, and many of the objects on display come directly from our own archaeological excavations and anthropological field work.