Celebrate Art, History, and Nature

In 2001 The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company donated its art collection of 190 works to the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this transformative gift, the Museum presents highlights from the collection with an emphasis on new methods of research and interpretation, showcasing the innovative ways in which scholarship has progressed over the past two decades. Commemorating these past twenty years, twenty leading art historians have re-examined 20 works through the lenses of environmental art history, material culture, landscape studies, and issues of identity, such as gender and race.


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Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery commemorates a landmark anniversary for our neighbor and sister institution by partially recreating their 1921 inaugural exhibition with works by Lucien Abrams, William Henry Howe, and Lydia Longacre, among others.

Lucien Abrams, A Date Palm, Spring 1913. Tempera on board. Private Collection, Connecticut.

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These hands-on/minds-on activities are designed for all skill levels and to inspire your creative individuality. Most projects can be made with materials you can find around the house. Take your time and enjoy the art-making process. Check back often to see how other people completed their projects.

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Expanding Horizons features highlights from the HSB collection with an emphasis on new methods of research and interpretation. Commemorating these past twenty years, twenty leading art historians have re-examined 20 works through the lenses of environmental art history, material culture, landscape studies, and issues of identity, such as gender and race.

A second exhibition, Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery, commemorates a landmark anniversary for our neighbor and sister institution by partially recreating their 1921 inaugural exhibition with works by Lucien Abrams, William Henry Howe, and Lydia Longacre, among others

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This online exhibition is a work in progress to compile and analyze Lyme Art Colony artist Edward Volkert’s depictions of agriculture from the 1910s-1930s, an era of technological transition from animal-powered to industrial farming. Drawing upon research for the 2018 exhibition "Art and the New England Farm" this online exhibition will consider how Volkert’s idyllic depictions of farm work reckon with subjects such as technological change, the relationship between rural and urban areas, immigration and labor sources, and the representation of health and the food supply (topics that gained particular relevance during and after World War I). While Volkert’s paintings of oxen teams harrowing fields may appear timeless, their emergence at a moment when these issues were intensively being discussed both in Connecticut and nationally allows us to consider how artists’ works help viewers navigate fraught transitions.

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The paintings and sculptures in this exhibition are by artists who lived and worked in Connecticut from the late Colonial period to the early 20th century.

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During the first summers of the Lyme art colony the artists began to paint scenes on the door panels of the boardinghouse.

See the Collection

One of the most celebrated works of art at the Florence Griswold Museum is the frieze-like painting titled The Fox Chase (1905) created by Henry Rankin Poore.

See the Collection

Begin your visit at the Krieble Gallery.

Visit the Gallery

The Late Georgian mansion was transformed from a wealthy sea captain’s home into a boardinghouse for some of the most noted names in American Impressionism.

Visit the House

The Museum’s grounds invite exploration.

Visit the Grounds