Connecticut Has the Oldest Continuously-Run Art Museum in the US

Did you know that the oldest, continuously-run art museum in all of the United States of America is in Connecticut? My first guess at which one it is was wrong, I guessed Yale University's, but it's actually in Hartford.

The oldest continuously-run art museum in all of the United States is Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. You can see in the photo that I took above that it was founded in 1842, and opened it's doors to the public in 1844. 180 years later, the Wadsworth is home to over 50,000 works of art, spanning over 5,000 years. It's an incredible destination filled with works from the masters.

On my last visit, I was stunned by the work of Salvador Dali, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Gustave Courbet, James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Gustav Klimt, Theodore Rousseau, Kehinde Wiley, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollock.

The Museum is located in downtown Hartford at 600 Main Street, it's beautiful with castle walls, and 75,000 square feet of exhibition space. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

The Museum was once the home of Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth, who was Commissary General of the American Forces in the War for Independence. Wadsworth hosted George Washington and Jonathon Trumbull , who met with French Commander Count De Rochambeau there in 1775 and 1781. Tickets to the Museum are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $10 for students. Free admission is offered to Hartford residents and youths 17 and under.