Museums - Bowdoin College Museum of Art

One of the earliest public art collections in America was established at Bowdoin College by the 1811 bequest of James Bowdoin III. Returning from Europe where he had served from 1805 to 1808 as Thomas Jefferson’s envoy to France and Spain, he brought back 70 paintings and a portfolio of Old Master drawings destined for the young school that bears his father’s name. Today the Bowdoin holds more than 14,000 objects, ranging from ancient to modern. It features a small collection of African, New World, and Pacific artifacts, including a considerable group of pre-Columbian jades. Much of the collection was given by Edward Perry Warren, who also was instrumental in building the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum in New York; and Oxford University.