Museums - Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection

Located in a nineteenth-century Federal-style mansion in Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks houses a research library, historic garden, and significant collections of Byzantine and pre-Columbian art. The property was acquired by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss in 1920 and was donated to Harvard University in 1940. Its collections gradually followed.
The Robert Woods Bliss Collection of pre-Columbian art, housed at Dumbarton Oaks, found its initial inspiration in Paris in 1912, when Royall Tyler took Bliss to see a group of pre-Columbian objects at the shop of the collector Joseph Brummer. Before long, Bliss had formed a collection of objects from the ancient cultures of Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. In April 1947, the collection had achieved such stature that it was placed on exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, where it remained until July 1962.
Bliss donated his pre-Columbian collection to Dumbarton Oaks in 1960, where it has been on display in a small wing designed by Philip Johnson since December 1963. Since Bliss’ death, his widow and other patrons have continued to add to the collection.