Delaware Art Museum

The Delaware Art Museum on Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington is the largest art museum in Delaware and one of the most significant small art museums in the eastern United States. Founded in 1912 to house the collection of Wilmington-born illustrator Howard Pyle, the museum built its international reputation on two exceptional strengths: the Howard Pyle Collection — the largest holdings by the father of American illustration — and the Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial Collection of Pre-Raphaelite British art, one of the most significant concentrations of Pre-Raphaelite works outside the United Kingdom.

The Pyle wing presents original paintings and drawings by Howard Pyle alongside works by his most celebrated students — N.C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, and Jessie Willcox Smith — illustrators whose images shaped American visual culture through magazine publishing and book illustration from the 1880s through the mid-20th century. The adjacent Brandywine heritage section contextualizes the school within Delaware's artistic tradition. The Bancroft Collection occupies purpose-built galleries with rich Victorian wall colors suited to major oils, watercolors, and decorative objects by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, and Ford Madox Brown. The broader American painting collection spans the 18th to 20th centuries, with notable holdings in the Hudson River School, Ashcan realists, and mid-century modernists.

A sculpture garden adjacent to the main building provides an outdoor complement to the interior galleries. The museum building received a major expansion in 2005 that roughly doubled gallery space. Parking is free in the museum lot, and DART bus Route 33 stops on Kentmere Parkway. A thorough visit covering the permanent collection takes 90 minutes to two and a half hours. Delaware residents receive free admission on Wednesday evenings.