Contact: Mike Horyczun For Immediate Release
Director of Public Relations May 24, 2007
(203) 869-6786, ext. 330
The Bruce Museum - A Century of Change
June 2, 2007 - August 19, 2007
Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT
Urn “International Centre Piece,” 1900
Modeled by Frederick Salter, made by the Belleek Pottery Ltd.
Porcelain, Parian ware, 27 ½ x 16”
Gold Medal Winner Paris exposition 1900
Gift of Mrs. Horace V. Steadman
Bruce Museum Collection 68.24
The new exhibition The Bruce Museum - A Century of Change highlights the Museum’s nearly 100-year-old history and joins in the celebration of the recent publication of the Greenwich Library Oral History Project’s book of the same name. On view in the Bantle Lecture Gallery will be photographs, fine art, and natural history objects associated with each of the seven Museum directors. Some of the Museum’s most valued pieces will be on display along with some of the more unusual specimens and artifacts. The exhibition is generously sponsored by The Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund,
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When Robert M. Bruce bequeathed his home to the town of Greenwich in 1908, he stipulated that it should become a “natural history, historical, and art museum.”
The Museum began primarily as a natural history museum. According to the oral history of Paul Howes, “We decided that he [Robert Moffat Bruce] preferred natural history because it was first in the list in his will.” Mr. Howes was responsible for the collection and display of the majority of the natural history collection. Several mounted specimens on view were collected by Howes including a colorful toucan and the skeleton of a sloth. Interestingly, both of these specimens were live animals when first brought to the Museum. Once they had died, Mr. Howes, an expert taxidermist, mounted their remains for the permanent collection. Natural history items were not the only things Mr. Howes collected during his 48-year tenure as curator and director. Many of the Museum’s important paintings were acquired under his direction including John Frederick Kensett’s 14 Mile Island, Lake George, which will be on exhibit.
The Museum’s extraordinary urn “International Centre Piece,” created by Belleek Pottery, Ltd. of Ireland, will be on view for the first time in over 14 years. The urn came to the Bruce Museum under the directorship of Raymond Owen, whose specialty was Native American material culture; however, like all of the directors, he was responsible for the collection of many varied objects during his term. Owen collected a substantial portion of the Bruce Museum’s Native American collection including a stunning 19th-century Chilkat blanket from the Tlingit of Alaska, which will also be on view.
In addition to collection artifacts, animal specimens, minerals, and paintings on view, the exhibition will spotlight historical items such as the admissions sign from the 1960s that reads: “Closed on Saturdays and Major Holidays.” Mr. Owen instituted that policy because “During school vacations … I found that the kids would come with their lunch in a bag and be waiting outside when the museum opened, and they were expected to spend the whole day in the museum. We couldn’t do anything except try to look after these kids. We knew that Saturday would be the same thing - their mothers would dump them there so they could go shopping. So we were not open.”
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Showcasing a century of collecting, the exhibition also will feature art and science objects acquired under Directors John B. Clark, Hollister Sturges, III, Homer McK Rees, and current Executive Director Peter C. Sutton.
In conjunction with the exhibition and the publication of the Greenwich Oral History Project book, the Bruce Museum presents the public program “Museum Director’s Panel Discussion: Bruce Museum - A Century of Change,” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, 2007. Joining together to discuss the past, present and future of the Bruce Museum will be current and former Directors of the Bruce Museum, Peter C. Sutton, Homer McK Rees, Hollister Sturges, III, and John B. Clark. The program will be moderated by Catherine H. Ogden, Chairman of the Greenwich Library Oral History Project. The event takes place in the Bruce Museum’s Bantle Lecture Gallery, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT. Admission is free with Museum admission. Reservations are suggested by calling the Museum at (203) 869-0376.
The Bruce Museum is located at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. General admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and free for children under five and Bruce Museum members. Free admission to all on Tuesdays. The Museum is located near Interstate-95, Exit 3, and a short walk from the Greenwich, CT, train station. Museum hours are: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Mondays and major holidays. Groups of eight or more require advance reservations. Museum exhibition tours are held Fridays at 12:30 p.m. Free, on-site parking is available. The Bruce Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376, or visit the Bruce Museum website at
http://www.brucemuseum.org/.
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The Bruce Museum - A Century of Change
June 2, 2007 - August 19, 2007
Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT
These images are available in color as digital files (JPEG 300 dpi) for exhibition publicity only. To receive images via e-mail, contact: Mike Horyczun, Bruce Museum Director of Public Relations, (203) 869-6786, ext. 330, or
mike@brucemuseum.org.
1_Kensett
John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816-1872)
Fourteen Mile Island, Lake George, 19th century
Oil on canvas
Gift of George N. Morgan, 1946
Bruce Museum collection
2_Bruce Portrait
M. D. Holt
Robert Moffat Bruce (1822 –1909), 1882
Chalk and charcoal on photograph
Bruce Museum collection
3_ Browne
Matilda Browne (American, 1869-1947)
August Morning
Oil on canvas
Museum purchase
Bruce Museum Collection
4_Silva
Francis A. Silva (American, 1835-1886)
Low Tide, 19th century
Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 x 35 1/2 in.
Gift of George N. Morgan
in memory of Ethel Boies Morgan, 1946
Bruce Museum Collection
5_Beleek Urn
Urn “International Centre Piece,” 1900
Modeled by Frederick Salter,
Made by the Belleek Pottery Ltd.
Porcelain, Parian ware, 27 ½ x 16”
Gold Medal Winner Paris exposition 1900
Gift of Mrs. Horace V. Steadman
Bruce Museum Collection
6_Blanket
Chilkat Wool Blanket, Alaska
Dyed mountain-goat wool and braided cedar bark fiber; totemic design, fringe. Worn at ceremonial dances and funerals.
Gift of Mrs. W. A. Davies
Bruce Museum Collection
7_Toucanet
Emerald Toucanet
Aulacorhynchus prasinus
Male from El Roble, Colombia
Gift Paul G. Howes
Bruce Museum Collection
8_Rabbit
Eastern cottontail rabbit
Sylvilagus floridanus
Stamford, Connecticut
Purchase from John Schaler, 1919
Bruce Museum Collection
9_Sloth
Southern two-toed sloth skeleton
Choloepus didactylus
Museum purchase, 1969
Bruce Museum Collection
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10_Shrunken Head
Monkey Head
4 in. high
Obtained in Lima, Peru by donor
Gift of Mrs. Edward F. Smith
Bruce Museum Collection
11_Simkhovitch_Early Morning
Simka Simkhovitch (1893-1949)
Early Morning in Connecticut, 1940
Oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 26 1/2 in.
Bruce Museum Collection
12_GroundSquirrel
Thirteen-lined ground squirrel
Spermophilus tridecemlineatus
Mound City, Ohio
Museum Purchase, 1946
Cincinnati Museum of Natural History
Bruce Museum Collection
13_Powers
Hiram Powers (1805-1873)
Proserpine, modeled in 1844
Marble, 25 x 19 x 11 in.
Museum purchase
Bruce Museum Collection
14_Motherwell
Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991)
America - La France Variations III, 1984
Color lithograph and collage
Museum purchase
Bruce Museum Collection
15_ MacMonnies
Frederick William MacMonnies
(American,1863-1937)
Nathan Hale, 1890
Bronze
Museum purchase
Bruce Museum Collection
16_Bellows
George W. Bellows
(American, 1882-1925)
Portrait of A.F. Lundberg, ca. 1906-07
Oil on canvas
Bruce Museum Collection
17_Bougereau
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
(French, 1825-1905)
Faun and Bacchante, 1860
Gift of Steven A. Cohen and Alexandra M. Cohen Bruce Museum Collection
Page 5 The Bruce Museum - A Century of Change
June 2, 2007 - August 19, 2007
Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT
These images are available in color as digital files (JPEG 300 dpi) for exhibition publicity only. To receive images via e-mail, contact: Mike Horyczun, Bruce Museum Director of Public Relations, (203) 869-6786, ext. 330, or
mike@brucemuseum.org************************************************************************
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