The Collection

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, built on the site of the home of Arthur and Ninah Cummer, opened its doors November 10, 1961. From Ninah Cummer's relatively small collection of sixty pieces that launched the museum, The Cummer's permanent collection has grown to over six thousand works of art encompassing eight thousand years of art history.

This enormous growth was accomplished through the generosity of numerous patrons whose gifts of art ranged from single pieces to entire collections. Other notable acquisitions were purchased with endowments established for that purpose by benefactors and The Cummer Council. Particularly noteworthy additions are the Wark Collection of early Meissen porcelain, the Dennis C. Hayes Collection of Japanese woodblock prints, and the Eugène Louis Charvot Collection of nineteenth-century prints and paintings.