Inside the Delaware Art Museum's Collection
From Pre-Raphaelite paintings to American illustration, Wilmington's flagship art museum holds a collection with a few genuine surprises.
Wilmington's flagship art museum is easy to underestimate, tucked away as it is in a mid-sized city not known as an art capital. That would be a mistake. Its collection holds a few genuine surprises, including strengths that would be the envy of institutions in far larger cities.
The holdings reflect the region's history. A deep collection of American illustration honors the area's long association with the golden age of the illustrated magazine, when a school of celebrated illustrators worked in the surrounding countryside.
The museum's real distinction lies in its remarkable trove of nineteenth-century British art, an unexpected treasure for an American museum of its size, and a legacy of the collecting passions of its early benefactors.
Beyond the permanent collection, the museum has worked to become a civic gathering place, with rotating exhibitions and programs meant to draw a broader public through its doors. It is a reminder that some of the most rewarding museums are the ones you did not expect to find.
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