Peabody Essex Museum

Essex Insitiute Historic District
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. Historic District
	Crowninshield-Bentley House
	;
Location:	Salem, Massachusetts
Coordinates:	42°31′20″N 70°53′33″W / 42.52222°N 70.8925°W
Built/Founded:	1727
Architect:	McIntire,Samuel
Architectural style(s):	Renaissance, Italian Villa, Federal
Governing body:	Private
Added to NRHP:	June 22, 1972
NRHP Reference#:	72000147

Peabody Museum of Salem
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. National Historic Landmark
	East India Marine Hall of the Peabody Museum, ca. 1900
	;
Location:	Salem, Massachusetts
Coordinates:	42°31′18″N 70°53′36″W / 42.52167°N 70.89333°W
Built/Founded:	1825
Architect:	Unknown
Architectural style(s):	No Style Listed
Governing body:	Private
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL:	December 21, 1965
NRHP Reference#:	66000783

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The Peabody Essex Museum, originally the Peabody Museum of Salem, in Salem, Massachusetts is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States [2], and holds one of the major collections of Asian art in the US; its total holdings include about 1.3 million pieces, as well as twenty-four historic buildings.

[edit] History

It was founded in 1799 as the East India Marine Society by a group of Salem-based captains and supercargoes. Members of the Society were required by the society's charter to collect "natural and artificial curiosities" from beyond the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. Due to the institution's age, the items they donated to the collections are significant for their unmatched combination of age and provenance. In 1992, the Peabody Museum of Salem merged with the Essex Institute to form the Peabody Essex Museum.

In 2003, the Peabody Essex Museum opened a new wing designed by Moshe Safdie, more than doubling the gallery space to 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²); this allowed the display of many items from its extensive holdings, which had previously been unknown to the public due to lack of capability to show them. At this time, the museum also opened to the public the Yin Yu Tang House, an early 19th century Chinese house from Anhui Province that had been removed from its original village and reconstructed in Salem.

[edit] Collections

The museum presently contains significant collections of:

Maritime art
American decorative art
Asian export art
Japanese art
Korean art
Chinese art
Native American art
Oceanic art^[2]
African art
Indian contemporary art
Phillips Library Collection: rare books, manuscripts & ephemera
Photography: a collection comprising more than a half million rare and vintage images
Architecture: 24 historic American structures and gardens; 5 buildings are National Historic Landmarks; 8 others are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] Architecture in the Peabody Essex Museum

The museum owns 24 historic structures and gardens. Some are shown in the gallery below. The full set of buildings are: Daniel Bray House, Gilbert Chadwick House, Cotting-Smith Assembly House, Crowninshield-Bentley House, John Tucker Daland House, Derby-Beebe Summer House, East India Marine Hall, Gardner-Pingree House and Gardner-Pingree Carriage House, Lye-Tapley Shoe Shop, Dodge Wing of the Peabody Essex Museum, Asian Export Art Wing of the Peabody Essex Museum, Peirce-Nichols House, Samuel Pickman House, Plummer Hall, Quaker Meeting House, L. H. Rogers Building, Ropes Mansion, Andrew Safford House, Summer School Building, Vilate Young (Kinsman) House, and John Ward House.

[edit] Images

John Tucker Daland House	Plummer Hall, formerly Salem Athenaeum	Derby-Beebe Summer House	Ropes Mansion
Peabody Museum Marine Room, ca. 1920	Peabody Museum Marine Room, ca. 1920	Peabody Museum half hulls built between 1809-1870 of Salem ships