History
Museum of Art and Archaeology
In the late nineteenth century, two professors played a leading role in promoting the study of art and archaeology at the University of Missouri: Walter Miller (1864-1949) and John Pickard (1853-1937). Pickard and Miller collected materials for teaching archaeology and art history, acquiring photographs, sculptures, reliefs, plaster casts that reproduce well-known (and mostly ancient Greek and Roman), and original works of art.
In a January 1, 1895 letter to MU President Richard Jesse, Professor Pickard requested $10,000 for the purchase of objects and furniture. The 1894-95 Mizzou catalog includes a description of the newly opened Academic Hall, later renamed Jesse Hall, as well as a mention of a museum.
Image: Saul and Gladys Weinberg in Pickard Hall, ca. 1975, during renovations of the building to serve as the Museum of Art and Archaeology
The Evolution of the Museum
Today the museum’s collection includes more than one hundred works from those early years. Professors Miller and Pickard retired during the Great Depression, and in 1935 the department of classical archaeology and history of art was disbanded.
The appointments of Professors Saul S. Weinberg in 1948 and Homer L. Thomas in 1950 heightened interest in archaeology and art history on campus. With the support of MU president Elmer Ellis and the dean of the College of Arts and Science, the study collections became an official university project with a small budget for the purchase of seventeen objects. In 1961, the first gallery was opened in Ellis Library with fourteen newly donated Old Masters paintings, a gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. With that donation, the Museum of Art and Archaeology was formally named.
Gladys Weinberg left a significant imprint on the museum. She was the museum’s first curator of ancient art and eventually became assistant director. She also founded MUSE, the museum’s annual peer-reviewed journal. Under the direction of the Weinbergs, acquisitions increased. The result was an assemblage of ancient art and artifacts of extraordinary range and depth, which provide a superb resource for exhibitions, teaching, and research.
In 1976, the museum moved to Pickard Hall, named for John Pickard. In its new quarters the museum began to play a significant role in the community which led to the establishment of Museum Associates. This official friends group participates in a wide variety of activities to support the museum, fundraising and sponsoring exhibitions and educational programs.
In 2013, the Museum of Art and Archaeology moved to Mizzou North due to concerns of residual radiation in Pickard Hall, which had once housed the university’s chemistry department. In 2022 the museum moved again—this time back to campus, to the lower level of Ellis Library. After nearly four years of renovation work, the museum officially re-opened to the public on May 3, 2024.