Asian Art

At the Museum's inception in 1941, nineteen Chinese robes were given by Mrs. Philip Stewart, and, at the same time, ninety-two Asian stone and wood religious sculptures and ceramic works from the Charles Henry Ludington collection were loaned for permanent display (and later donated). These objects, along with select acquisitions made by Ina T. Campbell in the 1940s, formed the nucleus of the Museum's Asian holdings. This collection was further enriched by significant gifts in the past two decades -- Kiyochika prints, Chinese textiles and ceramics, jades, Japanese lacquer, and Tibetan art. Today the Asian collection consists of over 2,600 objects in a variety of media, and spans a period of 4,000 years from diverse Asian cultures -- China, Japan, India, Tibet, and Southeast Asia. Included are Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, Chinese ceramics dating from the Neolithic (ca. 2,500 BC) to the 19th century, Japanese woodblock prints from the 18th through the early 20th centuries, and over one hundred Chinese Qing dynasty costumes and textiles.