The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (1876- ) in South Hadley, Massachusetts is located on the Mount Holyoke College campus and is a member of Museums10. It is one of the oldest "teaching museums" in the country, "dedicated to providing firsthand experience with works of significant aesthetic and cultural value" [1]. The works in the Museum's collection can be searched on the database maintained by the Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield.[2]
Working in conjunction with the Five college museums, its collection includes contemporary works from Asia, Europe, the United States as well as classical Egyptian, Greek, and Roman works. Other periods include Medieval and Renaissance art [3]. The collection was inaugurated by the purchase of Albert Bierstadt's Hetch Hetchy Canyon (Oil, 1875) by Mrs. A. L. Williston and Mrs. E. H. Sawyer in 1876.[1]
""It is our hope that this fine painting as one expression of the best in American Art, will prove an inspiration to your pupils, and that Holyoke will long continue to offer opportunities for the highest culture."" - Mrs. A. L. Williston & Mrs. E. H. Sawyer