 the philadelphia museum of art is among the largest art museums in the united states.main web page, philadelphia museum of art, accessed april 26, 2007 it has collections of more than 227,000 objects that include "world-class holdings of european and american paintings, prints, drawings, and decorative arts"."museum collections" web page, at web site for the philadelphia museum of art, accessed may 10, 2012 the main building is visited by more than 800,000 people annually, and is located at the west end of philadelphia's benjamin franklin parkway. other museum sites include the rodin museum, also located on the benjamin franklin parkway; the ruth and raymond g. perelman building, across the street from the main building; and historic houses in fairmount park. the perelman building opened in 2007, and houses some of the more popular collections, as well as the museum's library, with over 200,000 books and periodicals, and 1.6 million other documents. the museum is closed on mondays, and the basic entrance price is $20, with various concessions.pma website visitor information, accessed september 18, 2012 the museum holds a total of about 25 special exhibitions every year, including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the united states and abroad. some have an extra charge for entrance.pma website "current exhibitions" ==history== philadelphia celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of independence with the 1876 centennial exhibition, america's first world's fair. its art building, memorial hall, was intended to outlast the exhibition and house a permanent museum. following the example of london's south kensington museum, the new museum was to 
1876_establishments_in_Pennsylvania Art_museums_in_Pennsylvania Asian_art_museums_in_the_United_States Fairmount,_Philadelphia Fairmount_Park Museums_of_American_art Philadelphia_Museum_of_Art Philadelphia_Register_of_Historic_Places Terminating_vistas_in_the_United_States