Celebrate Art, History, and Nature

Join experts from all over the country as they expand our horizons about selected works from The Hartford Steam Boiler Collection. This virtual series takes advantage of the new and exciting scholarship offered in the current exhibition Expanding Horizons and features ten lectures on topics ranging from the American watercolor movement and folk art to African American studies and ecocriticism.

Register for individual presentations or the series. Program begins March 17.

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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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Circulating between his native Ohio and the Northeast, Volkert built a reputation as a painter of cattle, first becoming captivated by the subject after observing cows grazing at a dairy near his home in Bronx, New York. By 1922, he had obtained a summer place in Lyme. Next door lived another Midwestern transplant, artist Wilson Henry Irvine, who along with George M. Bruestle and Guy C. Wiggins of Lyme were members with Volkert in an exhibition collaborative called The Painter Friends. By Amy Kurtz Lansing

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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

Find out more...

The crafters in the Education Department are busily preparing special fun and creative activities for budding young artists.

Club members will get a different craft kit monthly for five months(March-July) — all previous kits will be sent if you sign up after March. Craft kits include all materials and instructions.

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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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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