Collections

A painting by Georgia O’Keeffe, locally made Peter-Mar toys, the drum played by a Muscatine soldier during the Civil War, a collection of Mississippi River paintings, and a drawing by Vincent van Gogh are among the treasures in the Muscatine Art Center’s collection.

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The Mississippi River Collection is one specialty of the Muscatine Art Center.

The Muscatine Art Center’s primary collection’s scope is American art including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts of the period 1800 to 1965. The Mississippi River Collection is one specialty of the Muscatine Art Center. Objects within this collection have aesthetic merit as works of art that document the Mississippi River and its environs.

Another component of the collection pertains to local history.

Also encompassed within the scope are fine and decorative arts, along with artifacts, archives, clothing, other textiles, and photographs, pertaining to the Musser-McColm family. Another component of the collection pertains to local history with maps, documents, photographs, artifacts, toys, clothing, other textiles, books, and ephemera. This component of the collection is primarily focused on Muscatine and Muscatine County.

9 Collections

Mississippi River Collection

The Mississippi River Collection historically and aesthetically documents the cities, towns and communities along the mighty Mississippi from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico.

Musser-McColm Family Collection

Furniture, photographs, dresses, paintings, glass, silver, diaries, music boxes, rugs and other decorative arts are among the items left by the Musser-McColm family.

Mary Musser-Gilmore Collection

Mrs. Gilmore was an avid art collector, acquiring works by Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, Camille Pissarro, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

Iowa Regionalist Collection

The Iowa Regionalist collection features works by Grant Wood and his Iowa contemporaries.

Muscatine History Collection

A wide variety of artifacts, ephemera, photographs, and archives makes up the Muscatine History Collection.

American Art Pottery Collection

Highlighted in the collection are Iowa State Pottery and pottery from other Iowa companies.

Early American Pattern Glass & Art Glass Collection

The glass collection consists of over 3,000 pieces of glass featuring a wide variety of patterns, colors, and forms, including American Art Glass and Early American Pattern Glass.

Costume Collection

The central pieces in the Costume Collection were owned by the Musser-McColm family.

Historic Toy Collection

Included in the Toy Collection are games, books, dolls and doll accessories and furniture, stuffed animals, wooden blocks and cars, and metal toys and ride-ons.