The Arkell Museum is a museum in

Canajoharie, New York Canajoharie () is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Montgomery County, New York, Montgomery County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 3,730 in 2010. Canajoharie is located south of the Mohawk River o ...

that has an extensive collection of American paintings, primarily from 1860–1940, as well as historical exhibits about the history of the

Mohawk River Valley The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson Ri ...

and of the

Beech-Nut Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation is a baby food company owned by the Swiss branded consumer-goods firm Hero Group. History Beech-Nut's roots go back to 1891, to the Mohawk Valley town of Canajoharie, New York. Raymond P. Lipe, along with his ...

babyfood company. The Canajoharie Library was founded in 1924, and a gallery was added in 1927. The

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

was originally built to house copies of European masterpieces and original 19th-century American paintings collected by Bartlett Arkell, then the town's leading industrialist. Susan Finch has written of the museum, "The institution has evolved into more than just an art gallery with a library attached, but an art gallery with a small town attached. The roster of American painters exhibited here is astounding and completely out of scale with what you would expect from a Thruway exit between Albany and Utica." Arkell acquired and donated some of the finest American paintings he came across. He incorporated several elements from different art museums that he visited in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

into this museum. These were the European paintings Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Prince George Gallery at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

in Liverpool, England and the gallery that housed ''

The Night Watch ''Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq'', also known as ''The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'', but commonly referred to as ''The Night Watch'' ( nl, De Nachtwacht), i ...

'' at the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, the

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. Many of the paintings on display reflect Arkell's personal taste. Growing up in Canajoharie, landscapes of rural New York State and the Mohawk River are what Arkell found intriguing as well as familiar as they can be seen hanging on the museum walls Arkellmuseum 003

The permanent collection includes twenty-one paintings by

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

, works by all members of The Eight, and paintings by leading American Impressionists such as

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...

George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was a prominent United States, American landscape painting, landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced b ...

and Ralph Blakelock are also well represented by several works in this impressive collection. American paintings from the 20th century include realist and regionalist works by Paul Sample, Ogden Pleissner and Thomas Hart Benton. This decorative arts collection derived from Arkell's desire to acquire objects of good taste such as furniture, sculpture, glass and pottery to place in the museum and library.

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* {{authority control Museums in Montgomery County, New York Art museums and galleries in New York (state) History museums in New York (state) Art museums established in 1927 Libraries established in 1924 1927 establishments in New York (state)

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