The Bruce Museum is a museum in downtown

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

with both art and natural history exhibition space. The Bruce's main building sits on a hill in a downtown park, and its tower (not open to the public) can be easily seen by drivers passing by on Interstate 95. Permanent exhibits include minerals, area Native American history and culture, changes in the area landscape and environment by human activity, and dioramas of Connecticut woodland wildlife and birds. The museum hosts changing exhibitions of art, photography, natural history, science, history and culture. A second location, the Bruce Museum Seaside Center, is maintained at

Greenwich Point Greenwich Point is one of four beaches located in Greenwich, Connecticut. The beach sits on a peninsula jutting into Long Island Sound. It is a popular spot for Greenwich families to spend the day. Visitors to Greenwich Point typically jog, walk, o ...

Park, focusing on beach-related exhibits, including a touch-tank. The museum also has a "Brucemobile" with exhibits in a traveling van for outreach education. The museum hosts frequent lectures, classes and social events. The Museum has hosted a local arts festival for over 40 years. The festival includes juried artist selections and is recognized nationally as one of the top fine arts festivals.

Art holdings

The art collection has a strong emphasis on the Cos Cob School, an Impressionist school, including paintings by

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 ...

Emil Carlsen Soren Emil Carlsen (October 19, 1853 – January 2, 1932, New York City, U.S.) was an American Impressionist painter who emigrated to the United States from Denmark. He became known for his still lifes. Later in his career, Carlsen expanded his ...

and

Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin '' L ...

and Mina Fonda Ochtman. Sculpture includes nineteenth and twentieth-century work by Auguste Rodin,

Hiram Powers Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture ''The Greek Slave''. ...

Frederick MacMonnies Frederick William MacMonnies (September 28, 1863 – March 22, 1937) was the best known expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, as successful and lauded in France as he was in the United States. He was also a highly accomplishe ...

and George Segal.

Permanent exhibits

The Bruce Museum promotes the understanding and appreciation of Art and Science to enrich the lives of all people. The museum has permanent exhibits featuring the natural sciences in regional and global perspective focusing on

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

, local Native Americans, natural history, and the effects of man on the areas around Greenwich. There are several display cases with

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

specimens, including a touchable meteorite, large mineral

crystals A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

from around the world and minerals that glow in black light. Part of a Northeast woodland

wigwam A wigwam, wickiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wickiup' ...

has been created as a seating area to learn about Native Americans, and there is a model of an archaeological dig. There are several cases focusing on the changes in the land and environment of Greenwich from pre-settler days up until the early 1900s. A large exhibit focuses on different prehistoric eras and fossils associated with those times. A fifteen-foot diorama displays local woodland wildlife. Other display cases show more birds and animals found in the area. A marine tank holds live small

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

crabs Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

and

sea stars Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ar ...

for close examination.

History

The Bruce Museum was originally built as private home 1853 for lawyer, clergyman and historian Francis Lister Hawks. In 1858 a wealthy textile merchant member of the New York Cotton Exchange Robert Moffat Bruce (1822-1908) bought the house and property. In 1908 he deeded his mansion to the town of Greenwich for it to be used "as a natural history, historical and art museum, for the use and benefit of the public." The Museum's first exhibition opened in 1912, featuring the Greenwich Society of Artists. The Greenwich Society of Artists exhibited annually at the Bruce from 1912-1926. Several of those artists were also members of the Cos Cob Art Colony. The Museum's early holdings include paintings, drawings, watercolors, and notebooks of Cos Cob Art Colony artists including George Wharton Edwards, Hobart Jacobs,

Leonard Ochtman Leonard Ochtman (October 21, 1854 – October 27, 1934) was a Dutch- American Impressionist painter who specialized in landscapes. He was a founding member of the Cos Cob Art Colony and the Greenwich Society of Artists. Biography and ca ...

, and Mina Ochtman. In 1992 the Bruce Museum, Inc. established as a non-profit organization. That same year, the museum started a project to completely renovate its building. When it reopened in September 1993, museum featured an architectural structure wrapped around the original building, housing galleries for art on one side of the main pavilion with galleries of environmental history on the other. In 2001,

Dutch art Dutch art describes the history of visual arts in the Netherlands, after the United Provinces separated from Flanders. Earlier painting in the area is covered in Early Netherlandish painting and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. The his ...

expert Peter C. Sutton was hired as the Susan E. Lynch Executive Director and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of the Bruce Museum. In 2019, Sutton retired and was succeeded by Robert Wolterstorff.

References

External links

* {{authority control Buildings and structures in Greenwich, Connecticut Art museums and galleries in Connecticut Natural history museums in Connecticut Museums in Fairfield County, Connecticut Geology museums in the United States Paleontology in Connecticut 1912 establishments in Connecticut Museums established in 1912