by The Davis Museum is part of Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
It was founded way back 1889, with a collection begun with the founding of the college in 1875.
Founder Henry Fowle Durant “began a campaign to acquire original paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs, as well as plaster casts of classical sculpture, in service of a liberal arts education for women.”
Drawing and painting were an important part of Wellesley’s education right from the start. Wellesley College was one of the first schools to offer instruction in art history, beginning in 1885. Alice Van Vechten Brown, museum director and head of the art department, developed an art history curriculum that came to be known as “The Wellesley Method.” In 1926, a Wellesley professor developed the first modern art course in the United States.
The cover photo is Still Life with Pipe and Book, late 19th or early 20th century, John Frederick Peto.
