The Berkshire Museum is a museum of natural history, art and ancient civilization that is located in Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States.
The museum was founded in 1903 by Zenas Crane, grandson of the founder of paper-maker Crane & Company, under the auspices of the Berkshire Athenaeum. The vision was to create an educational community museum for all ages. The museum became independent in 1932.
Today the museum includes galleries on art, ancient civilization, and natural science including a gallery of dinosaurs and paleontology and a mineral gallery. It has a notable collection of Hudson River school paintings, as well as a work by Norman Rockwell, portraits by John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, and John Singer Sargent, and kinetic toy sculptures by Alexander Calder. There is also an aquarium. The museum is able to offer a wide array all within one collection.[1]
The Ellen Crane Memorial Sculpture Gallery presents neoclassical sculptures, mainly in marble, by sculptors including Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1809–1873), Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876–1973), Randolph Rogers (1825–1892), Franklin Simmons (1839–1913) and Giulio Tadolini (1849–1918).
The Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation opened in March 2008. This new hall falls in line with the museum's traditional "curiosity cabinet" appeal and is dedicated to local innovators.[2]
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