View source for Reading Public Museum

{{Short description|Museum in West Reading, Pennsylvania}}
{{for|the museum in [[Reading, Berkshire]], Great Britain|Museum of Reading}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Primary sources|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox museum
| name            = Reading Public Museum
| logo            = Logo of the Reading Public Museum.png
| image           = Reading Art Museum.jpg
| caption         = Outside view
| mapframe        = yes
| mapframe-caption = Interactive fullscreen map
| mapframe-zoom   = 14
| mapframe-marker = museum
| mapframe-wikidata = yes
| coordinates     = {{WikidataCoord|display=it}}
| location        = [[West Reading, Pennsylvania]]
}}
[[File:AliceKentStoddard.jpg|thumb|[[Alice Kent Stoddard]] (American, 1883 – 1976), ''Leila'', 1915, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches, Reading Public Museum, Gift, George D. Horst]]
[[File:JulienDupre The Balloon2.jpg|thumb|[[Julien Dupré]] (French, 1851 – 1910), ''The Balloon'', 1886, oil on canvas, 95 1/4 x 79 inches, Reading Public Museum, Museum Purchase]]
The '''Reading Public Museum''' is a [[museum]] in [[Reading, Pennsylvania]], located in the 18th Ward, along the [[Wyomissing Creek]].  The museum's permanent collection mainly focuses on [[art]], [[science]], and [[civilization]] and contains over 280,000 objects. It also has a [[planetarium]] (the Neag Planetarium) and a {{convert|25|acre|m2|adj=on}} [[arboretum]].

== History ==
The Museum was founded in 1904, when the Reading School District board authorized the purchase of exhibits from the [[Louisiana Purchase Exposition|Saint Louis World's Fair]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-03 |title=Origin Story: Reading Public Museum |url=https://www.visitpaamericana.com/blog/post/reading-public-museum-berks-pa-2/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=www.visitpaamericana.com |language=en-us}}</ref> These new purchases were added to the private natural history collections of Dr. [[Levi Walter Mengel|Levi W. Mengel]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Susan Miers |date=2021-10-07 |title=Who was Levi Mengel? Founder of the Reading Public Museum |url=https://www.readingeagle.com/2021/10/07/who-was-levi-mengel-founder-of-the-reading-public-museum/ |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=Reading Eagle |language=en-US}}</ref> The Museum opened its doors, at the old school administration building on Washington and Eighth streets, to the general public in 1913; that same year, The Museum started collecting works of art. 

[[Levi Walter Mengel|Levi Mengel]] was The Museum's first director and was its founding father. [[Christopher Shearer]], a well-known landscape artist was The Museum's first curator of art. Ground was broken at its current location in February of 1925; the foundation stone was laid on May 1, 1925, and by 1928, the Museum was open to the public in its new Beaux-Art style structure that was designed by Alexander Forbes Smith.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Webb |first=Joseph |date=2023-01-16 |title=History of The Reading Public Museum |url=https://goreadingberks.com/reading-public-museum/ |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=GoReadingBerks / Reading Berks History |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1998, architect [[Der Scutt]] was commissioned to add an atrium entrance to the existing structure.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-23 |title=History Book: Berks architect drew up home of future president |url=https://www.readingeagle.com/2016/11/23/history-book-berks-architect-drew-up-home-of-future-president/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Reading Eagle |language=en-US}}</ref> The Arboretum was planned in the late-1920s by renowned American landscape architect [[John Nolen]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Arboretum at the Reading Public Museum Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=161112 |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref> Since 1991, The Museum has been operated by The Foundation for the Reading Public Museum. The Museum has been accredited by the [[American Alliance of Museums]] since 1982.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-30 |title=Reading Public Museum again achieves national accreditation [Spotlight] |url=https://www.readingeagle.com/2025/03/30/reading-public-museum-again-achieves-national-accreditation-spotlight/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Reading Eagle |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Collections==
[[File:Charles Webster Hawthorne, A Study in White.jpg|thumb|upright=.85|''A Study in White'' (undated), by [[Charles Webster Hawthorne]].]]
The Museum's art collection contains works from many cultures but the strengths of the collection include American works of art. Its fine art collection includes more than seven hundred oil paintings by American and international artists. Paintings by  [[Benjamin West]], [[Raphaelle Peale]], [[Thomas Birch (artist)|Thomas Birch]], [[Gilbert Stuart]], [[Thomas Sully]], [[Peter F. Rothermel|Peter Rothermel]], [[Jacob Eichholtz]], [[Paul Weber (artist)|Paul Weber]], [[Hermann Ottomar Herzog|Hermann Herzog]], [[Worthington Whittredge]], [[Frederic Church]], [[Susan Macdowell Eakins]],  [[Childe Hassam]], [[William Merritt Chase]], [[John Singer Sargent]], [[John Henry Twachtman]], [[N. C. Wyeth]], [[Edward Willis Redfield|Edward Redfield]], [[John Fulton Folinsbee]], [[Fern Coppedge]], [[Paulette Van Roekens|Paulette van Roekens]], [[Walter Elmer Schofield]], [[George Sotter]], [[Daniel Garber]],  [[Robert Henri]], [[William Glackens]], [[George Bellows]], [[John French Sloan]], [[Frank Weston Benson]], [[William McGregor Paxton|William Paxton]], [[Colin Campbell Cooper]], [[Guy C. Wiggins|Guy Carleton Wiggins]], [[Abbott Handerson Thayer]], [[Martha Walter]], [[Elihu Vedder]], [[Joseph Stella]], [[Frederick Judd Waugh]], [[Aldro Hibbard]], [[Alfred Henry Maurer]], [[Arthur Bowen Davies|Arthur B. Davies]], and [[Leon Dabo]] form the core of the historic American art collection.

American modernist works in the permanent collection include those by [[Milton Avery]], [[Alexander Calder]], [[Robert Gwathmey]], [[Hans Hofmann]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]], [[Robert Motherwell]], [[William Baziotes]], [[Helen Frankenthaler]], [[Jules Olitski]], [[Richard Anuszkiewicz]], [[Vivian Springford]] and [[Louise Nevelson]].

These join a group of European paintings by [[Edgar Degas]], [[Charles-François Daubigny|Charles Francois Daubigny]], [[Julien Dupre]], [[Albert Lebourg]], [[Marià Fortuny]], [[Martin Rico y Ortega]], [[Frits Thaulow|Fritz Thaulow]], [[Oswald Achenbach|Oswald Aachenbach]], and [[Anton Mauve]], among others, which are in The Museum's holdings. 

Sculptures by [[Auguste Rodin|Aguste Rodin]], [[Edward McCartan]], [[Harriet Whitney Frishmuth|Harriett Whitney Frishmuth]], [[Cyrus Edwin Dallin|Cyrus Dallin]], [[James Earle Fraser (sculptor)|James Earl Fraser]], [[Henry Moore]], [[Harry Bertoia]], [[George Segal (artist)|George Segal]], [[Nancy Graves]], [[Frank Stella]], and [[Deborah Butterfield]] are also part of the permanent collection at RPM. 

More than 12,000 works on paper from [[illuminated manuscript]]s, works by [[Albrecht Dürer]], [[Rembrandt]], [[Francisco Goya]], [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler]], through the prints of [[Andy Warhol]], [[Jim Dine]], [[Chuck Close]], and [[Keith Haring]] are also housed in the collection. Photographs by [[Eadweard Muybridge|Edweard Muybridge]], [[Edward Steichen]], [[Alfred Stieglitz]], [[Ansel Adams]], [[Berenice Abbott]], and [[Dorothea Lange|Dorthea Lange]] are represented in the collection.

The Museum's collection includes [[Nefrina]], a mummy from the Ptolemaic period in ancient Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nefrina|url=http://collection.readingpublicmuseum.org/objects/15187/nefrina;jsessionid=309E5CC4C6386F62BD171D138244D38C|access-date=2022-01-13|website=collection.readingpublicmuseum.org|language=en}}</ref> The ancient collection also contains a notable collection of Greek vases (including the Herakles Vase attributed to the Alkmene Painter), and Greek and Roman marbles.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Herakles Hydria - Attributed to the Alkmene Painter |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/herakles-hydria-attributed-to-the-alkmene-painter/ZAFGy26_LlFYLg |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref> The Arms and Armor gallery features exceptional European examples from the sixteenth<ref>{{Cite web |title="Maximilian" armor |url=http://collection.readingpublicmuseum.org/objects/21700/maximilian-armor;jsessionid=E0B8CE78E2F74D78A95C405C8348E47A |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=collection.readingpublicmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> and seventeenth centuries—including a Maximilian suit of armor—as well as examples from Japan, the Islamic world, Africa, and the South Pacific.
[[File:BENSON ON GRAND RIVER.jpg|thumb|[[Frank Weston Benson]] (American, 1861 -1951), ''On Grand River'', 1930, oil on canvas, 36 x 44 inches, Reading Public Museum]]
Hundreds of historic North American Indian artworks from the Lenape, Montagnais, Inuit, Blackfoot, Acoma, Hopi, Sioux, Crow, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Cochiti, and Mandan peoples are housed at The Reading Public Museum. The Museum also includes Asian collections with artwork from China, Japan, India, and Thailand.

The Museum also houses a large collection of [[Pennsylvania Dutch|Pennsylvania German]] objects that include fraktur, painted furniture—including one of the finest examples of a dower chest by the Black Unicorn Artist,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dower chest - Unknown (Black Unicorn Artist) |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/dower-chest-unknown-black-unicorn-artist/GgG8y_0rRFIWpg |access-date=2023-09-16 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref> glazed earthenware, clocks, tinware, and paintings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pennsylvania German Collection|url=http://collection.readingpublicmuseum.org/collections/17516/pennsylvania-german/objects|website=collection.readingpublicmuseum.org}}</ref> The Museum also has galleries dedicated to American Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, European Art, the arts of North American Indians, Ancient Civilizations, Arts of the Ancient Americas,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jaguar Vessel - Guanacaste-Nicoya peoples, Costa Rica/Nicaragua |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/jaguar-vessel-guanacaste-nicoya-peoples-costa-rica-nicaragua/kAGMjGlzSP94FA |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref> and Natural History, among others.

The Museum's natural history collections include thousands of specimens of moths and butterflies (many of them collected by Levi W. S. Mengel), as well as other insects, birds, nests, bird eggs, mammals, fossils, minerals, botanical specimens, and animal skins.

==See also==
*[[List of botanical gardens in the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.readingpublicmuseum.org Official website]
*[https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/reading-public-museum?hl=en Reading Public Museum] within [[Google Arts & Culture]]
*{{commons category-inline}}

{{Museums in Pennsylvania}}
{{Reading, Pennsylvania}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Museums in Reading, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Natural history museums in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Science museums in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Arboreta in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Planetaria in the United States]]
[[Category:Museums established in 1907]]
[[Category:1907 establishments in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Paleontology in Pennsylvania]]