History
The museum was founded in 1912 after Howard Pyle's death as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, with over 100 paintings, drawings, and prints purchased from Pyle's widow, Anne. Pyle, the best-known American illustrator of his day, died unexpectedly in 1911 while on a trip to Italy. He left behind many students and patrons in his home town of Wilmington, including Frank Schoonover, Stanley Arthurs, and Louisa du Pont Copeland, who wished to honor Pyle's memory through the museum. The museum's charter stated its purpose as "to promote the knowledge and enjoyment of and cultivation in the fine arts in the State of Delaware."
From 1912 to 1922 the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts did not have a permanent home. It held annual exhibitions of work by Pyle, as well as a juried exhibitions of his pupils and other Delaware Artists, at the Hotel duPont. The Pyle Collection continued to grow due to the largess of Willard S. Morse who gave over 100 Pyle pen and ink drawing to the WSFA between 1915 and 1919. In 1922 the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts rented three rooms in the New Library Building on the corner of 10th and Market Streets in downtown Wilmington.
In 1931 the estate of Samuel Bancroft Jr. contacted the Wilmington Society for the Fine Arts with an offer to donate a collection of Pre-Raphaelite works along with 11 acres of land to house a museum for the collection. Bancroft acquired the collection beginning in the 1890s and his collection is the "largest and most important collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art and manuscript materials in the United States." Despite the harships of the Great Depression, the WSFA raised $350,000 for the new building, which opened in 1938. At the same time the name was changed to Delaware Art Center.
The WSFA moved into the Delaware Art Center in June 1938, with the Wilmington Academy of Fine Arts running educational programs on the ground floor. The onset of World War II resulted in strict gas rationing, which drastically reduced the attendance to the museum. The Wilmington Academy of Fine Arts disbanded in 1943 and turned its assets over to the Delaware Art Center, forming the basis of its education department, which grew to over 500 students by 1954.
The rapid expansion of educational programs after World War II required the Delaware Art Center to expand by 1956. Thanks to a $300,000 donation by H. Fletcher Brown, studios and training facilities were included in the expansion. A further renovation was completed in 1970, adding air conditioning and humidity control to the building. In 1972, the Delaware Art Center was awarded accreditation by the American Association of Museums. Shortly thereafter, the Delaware Art Center was renamed the Delaware Art Museum to "reflect the growing strength of its collections, programs, and constituency."
A further expansion was completed in 1987, which effectively doubled the size of the museum. However, the rapid growth of attendance, programming and outreach required a further expansion in 2005.
Read more about this topic: Delaware Art Museum
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