The Staten Island Museum (officially the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences) is Staten Island’s most prestigious historical and cultural institution and the only remaining public museum in Staten Island, New York. The museum was founded in 1881 by 1 of the city’s most prominent “environmental activists.” The Staten Island Museum has artifacts and exhibits from the past to the present. It’s a “mini-Smithsonian” full of science, art, and local history. The museum collections are divided into natural sciences, visual arts, and historical archives and libraries. Natural science readers include over 500,000 biological, botanical and mineral specimens. These include nests, eggs, and nests of bird species. They also have bones and animal shells mounted on fossil sides and a large collection of insects, including important representations of that type. Based on 19th-century art designs, this collection includes objects from prehistoric and modern times and represents various Western and non-Western world civilizations. The collection includes library atlases, maps and films from the beginning, sound recordings, photographs, and other historical items such as ephemera and archival documents from the 17th century.
Staten Island Museum The Staten Island Museum was founded in 1881 by local naturalists and private antiquarians who gathered their collections and established a museum. It was opened to the public in 1908. The founding members are William T. Davis, Nathaniel Lord Britton, Arthur Hollick, Charles W. Leng, and William T. Davis. They played an important role in preserving the city’s natural habitat and in research and education. The museum is dedicated to environmental conservation and has actively preserved High Rock Park and the William T. Davis Nature Preserve. Since 1908, museum staff has organized regular bird surveys to support the Audubon Society. In 1909, the art department was established. In 1919, the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences was founded to reflect a greater purpose, including the area’s history. EZ Staten Island Junk Removal
Collections
The Museum’s art collection includes early Egyptian sculptures, Renaissance paintings, 19th-century Hudson River School landscapes of Staten Island and New York Harbor, 21st-century photographs, abstract art, and recent media. It is currently the only institution that collects works by contemporary Staten Island artists. Its collections include American landscape paintings, Old Master prints, historical costumes and accessories, African sculptures and masks, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities, Japanese photographs, pre-Columbian ceramics, ancient and modern Native American objects, and English and American silver. , and both Western and non-Western artifacts, such as collections of Chinese snuff bottles, carved pipes, and pocket watches, bequeathed by local benevolent collectors. The selection also includes Samuel H. Italian Renaissance paintings by Kress and some smaller Renaissance-inspired bronzes from the 19th century.
Address: 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY
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