Reading Public Museum

The Reading Public Museum is a private museum in West Reading, Pennsylvania, situated in Berks County along the Wyomissing Creek. Founded in 1904 and opened to the public in 1913, it holds more than 280,000 objects and specimens, including over 50,000 works of art, making it the largest private museum and the largest art collection between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Its interdisciplinary focus spans art, science, and cultural artifacts, complemented by the Neag Planetarium and a 25-acre arboretum.

The museum originated in 1904 when Levi W. Mengel, a science teacher in the Reading School District, requested authorization to purchase natural history and anthropological teaching materials from the Saint Louis World's Fair to support sensory education for students. The school district approved the request, and by 1907 the third floor of the administration building at Eighth and Washington Streets was converted into a museum space. In 1913 the institution began collecting art and opened to the general public, though it remained a private institution despite its name. That same year it was renamed the Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery. Mengel served as the museum's first director, and Christopher Shearer, a landscape artist, became its first curator of art. Ferdinand Thun, Henry Janssen, and Gustav Oberlaender donated land for a new building, and ground was broken in February 1925. The foundation stone was laid on May 1, 1925, and the Beaux-Arts structure designed by Alexander Forbes Smith opened in 1928 or 1929. The arboretum was planned in the late 1920s by landscape architect John Nolen and stocked with rare plants from the collection of iris specialist Bertrand H. Farr. In 1998 architect Der Scutt added an atrium entrance. The Foundation for the Reading Public Museum has operated the institution since 1991, and it has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1982.

The permanent collection concentrates on art, science, and cultural artifacts. American art has anchored the holdings since 1913, when the museum purchased a winter landscape by local artist Victor Shearer. Curators regularly acquired works from the Annual Exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, building strong representation of leading national figures. The collection encompasses historic paintings from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, the New Hope School (Bucks County School), and American modernism including the Ashcan School. A particular strength is the museum's holding of nearly 1,000 works by mid-century artist William Baziotes, one of the largest such collections in the United States. The museum has also maintained a century-long commitment to collecting works by women artists, from early acquisitions such as a painting by Mary B. Leisz to extensive representation of the Philadelphia Ten and sculptors including Malvina Hoffman, Anna Hyatt Huntington, and Katharine Lane Weems.

The museum's historic American paintings include works by Thomas Birch, Jacob Eichholtz, Raphaelle Peale, Peter Rothermel, Gilbert Stuart, and Benjamin West. Its Hudson River School holdings feature Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, George Inness, and Worthington Whittredge. American Impressionist works include pieces by Cecilia Beaux, Frank Weston Benson, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, and John Singer Sargent. The New Hope School is represented by Daniel Garber, Edward Willis Redfield, and Walter Elmer Schofield among others. Modernist holdings include George Bellows, Robert Henri, George Luks, and John Sloan of the Ashcan School, plus Arthur B. Davies and Joseph Stella. The museum has hosted major solo exhibitions and retrospectives for artists including Alexandre Iacovleff (1947), Marsden Hartley (1971), Robert Indiana (1983), and David Lynch (2003). It was one of the first U.S. museums to exhibit original Walt Disney cartoons and drawings in 1937, and the first museum worldwide both to exhibit a work by and award a prize to Keith Haring.

The museum occupies a Beaux-Arts style building designed by Alexander Forbes Smith, constructed at its present location after ground was broken in February 1925. Der Scutt designed a 1998 atrium entrance addition. The 25-acre arboretum, planned in the late 1920s by John Nolen, contains rare plants and champion trees, including specimens from the personal collection of noted Irisarian Bertrand H. Farr. The site also includes the Neag Planetarium.

The Reading Public Museum is located in West Reading, Pennsylvania, in the 18th Ward along the Wyomissing Creek. It is owned and operated by the Foundation for the Reading Public Museum, which assumed management in 1991. The museum has held accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums since 1982. Further visiting information is available through the museum's website at www.readingpublicmuseum.org.