New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Hartford County, United States | Museum

Founded in 1903 the New Britain Museum of American Art entitles the institution to be designated the first museum of strictly American art in the United States.

A $20,000 gift of gold bonds from industrialist John Butler Talcott in 1903, created funds to purchase "modern oil paintings."

Subsequent purchases, with advice from New York museums and galleries, further defined "modern" to mean American works of art, now numbering more than 5,000. With particular strengths in colonial portraiture, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, and the Ash Can School, not to mention the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton, the museum relies heavily on its permanent collection for exhibitions and programming, yet also displays a significant number of borrowed shows and work by emerging artists.

The New Britain Museum of American Art is a significant teaching resource available to Tthe local, regional, and national public because of the singular focus on American art and its panoramic view of American artistic achievements.