page_title: Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens
section_title: Museum
hierarchical_section_title: Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens / History / Museum
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of the original Cummer Museum building, from a 1965 brochure. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 09000345 More images
context_page_description: The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens is a museum located in Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded in 1961 after the death of Ninah Cummer, who bequeathed her gardens and personal art collection to the new museum. The Cummer Museum has since expanded to include the property owned by Ninah's brother-in-law, but it still includes her original garden designs and a portion of her home with its historic furnishing. The museum and gardens attract 130,000 visitors annually.
  The permanent collection of the museum currently includes over 5,000 works of art dating from 2100 BCE to the twenty-first century. The museum's collection is especially strong in European and American paintings and also includes substantial holdings of Meissen porcelain. The museum also has an award-winning education center, Art Connections, which possesses a number of interactive educational installations and serves underprivileged and special education students with its programs.
  There are three flower gardens on the museum grounds, the oldest dating back to 1903.
context_section_description: Ninah Cummer and Clara Cummer, both now widows, died in 1958. Ninah Cummer left her estate, including her gardens, to the DeEtte Holden Cummer Museum Foundation for a museum to house her art collection. In 1960, the siblings' homes were both demolished in order to build the museum. Clara and Waldo's property was sold and now houses the Northeast Florida chapter of the American Red Cross and the Cummer's education center, Art Connections. Parts of the gardens were also destroyed during this demolition. The new building was designed by Saxelbye and Powell and constructed in 1961. It featured an Art Deco façade and an inner courtyard that was paved with the terra cotta tiles of the Cummers' old roof. One room from the original Cummer home, known as the Tudor Room, was preserved and incorporated into the new museum. The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, then named The Cummer Gallery, opened on November 11, 1961.
  The museum's first opening was attended by one thousand guests, including Jacksonville Mayor W. Haydon Burns and Florida Governor Farris Bryant.  Burns was noted as saying, "The people of Jacksonville have never received a gift comparable in generosity or beauty to the museum… a testament to the heritage of the past and representing the strength and character of those who were leaders of Jacksonville in the past." The museum's collection was on display, as well as three special exhibitions: a collection of 51 etchings by James McBey (now part of the Museum’s permanent collection), a selection of French paintings on loan from a New York gallery, and an exhibition of American art on loan from the National Academy of Design.
  In 1971, ten years after the museum's opening, the Cummer celebrated the addition of a new wing for 17th-century art.
  
  In 1989, the museum acquired an ancient Egyptian stela, dating back to 2100 BCE, making it the oldest piece of art in the museum's collection.
  The Cummer Museum acquired the Barnett building in the early 1990s, remodeling the first floor into the museum’s education center, Art Connections, and using the second floor for administrative offices. The two buildings were connected by the Barnett Concourse, and two more major galleries were added. This expansion was completed in 1992. In early 2002, the museum acquired the adjacent Woman's Club of Jacksonville, a Tudor-style residential building which would serve as a space for programs and events for the museum. The museum also acquired the Jacobsen Gallery of American Art in 2005, and the Mason Gallery in 2006.
  On January 25, 2010, the Cummer Gardens were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
  In March 2016, the board of trustees of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens announced that the old Woman's Club of Jacksonville, which was to become a center for programming for the museum, would have to be demolished because of an infestation of Formosan subterranean termites, costing the museum its $7 million investment into the building. It had been previously listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
caption: The new Cummer Gallery building, from a 1965 brochure.
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