Company Profile
Biggs Museum of American Art
Company Overview
Established in 1993, the Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art Museum houses one of the finest collections of American fine and decorative arts.
Special features of the permanent collection include the only comprehensive representational American paintings collection on the Delmarva Peninsula with highlights by the Peale family, Albert Bierstadt, Gilbert Stuart, and Childe Hassam. Experience a variety of art forms such as sculptures by Hiram Powers and images by Brandywine School illustrator, Frank E. Schoonover. View Examples of furniture by early-American cabinetmakers such as, the Javier family of Odessa, and William Savery of Philadelphia. The Museum also houses one of the finest collections of regional silver in the country.
The Biggs offers changing exhibitions throughout the year relating to historical and contemporary art topics. Intimate galleries offer guests an unexpected and personal experience with the collection. The museum supports the public education of art through educational programming for adults and children and special events designed to bring art to everyone.
Company History
Opening its doors in 1993, The Biggs Museum of American Art quickly became one of the most important museums in Delaware. The Museum was founded to display the art collection of its founder, Sewell C. Biggs (1914-2003), and to delight and educate its visitors on the valuable cultural legacy of the region. The Museum displays the finest Delaware-made furniture and silver collection as well as the only painting and sculpture collection in the region able to track the history of American representational art. The Museum’s twenty five galleries are arranged to emphasize the evolution of Mid-Atlantic fashion in the fine and decorative arts from the early 1700s to the present and to present several focus exhibitions annually. Art education is at the core of the Biggs Museum’s mission and opportunities to experience the Museum in different ways are offered throughout the year.
The Biggs Museum of American Art is located at 406 Federal Street in downtown Dover, Delaware. Early supporters of the Biggs Museum, Delaware’s former first lady Elise DuPont and Senator Nancy Cook, helped carve a gracious niche within State government to hold this unique, private museum.
Since the 2003 death of its founder, the Biggs Museum continues to expand and refine its permanent collection along the path carved by Sewell C. Biggs. His interest in displaying the symbols of regional, artful spaces alongside his fine-art teaching collection is maintained in every new accession. Sewell’s life-long passions of collecting, architecture, American and regional arts, and modern-art patronage are combined and presented in the Biggs Museum. The result is a museum founded to define the artistic life of the entire State of Delaware.