Музей Пибоди-Эссекс: История и Коллекции

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the Essex Institute. PEM is one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the United States and holds one of the major collections of Asian art in the United States. Its total holdings include about 1.3 million pieces, as well as twenty two historic buildings. After opening newly expanded spaces in 2019, PEM now ranks in the top 10 North American art museums in terms of gallery square footage, operating budget and endowment. The PEM holds more than 840,000 works of historical and cultural art covering maritime, American, Asian, Oceanic and African art, Asian export art, and two large libraries with over 400,000 books and manuscripts.

In 1992, the Peabody Museum of Salem merged with the Essex Institute to form the Peabody Essex Museum. The Boston Globe reported this was the largest capital campaign in the museum's history, vaulting the Peabody Essex into the top tier of major art museums. The PEM trustee co chairs Sam Byrne and Sean Healey with board president Robert Shapiro led the campaign.$200 to $250 million will fund the museum's expansion bringing the total square footage to
In May 2012, the PEM confirmed that its expansion would not be finished until 2019, due to the unexpected death of museum architect Rick Mather in April 2012 and the search for his replacement. The firm of Ennead Architects (New York) was chosen after successfully completing the first phase of the building project, which included master planning and the renovation of the museum's Dodge wing, which was scheduled to open in November 2013. On September 28, 2019, the museum opened a new wing designed by Ennead Architects, adjacent to East India Marine Hall. This addition included of Class A galleries as well as a landscaped garden designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

In 2021, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM's former deputy director and Chief Curator, became the first woman to be the Rose Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO of PEM. The director and CEO from 1993 to 2019 was Dan Monroe. He was succeeded on July 15, 2019, by Brian Kennedy, who previously directed the Toledo Museum of Art.

The Peabody Essex Museum's collection of African art includes approximately 3,600 objects as of 2014. The acquisition of these works began in the early 19th century, as members of the East India Marine Society collected objects from West and sub Saharan Africa. These objects include ceremonial masks, pottery, woven baskets, and a significant collection of Ethiopian art—particularly Christian icons and metalwork, many of which are based in the traditions of Byzantine art. In 1812, Salem became the headquarters of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which went on to establish missions throughout the continent. These missions facilitated trade, particularly with the Zulu in South Africa, and contributed significantly to the growth of the collection.

PEM's extensive collection of American art includes over 1,000 portraits, among them works by John Singer Sargent, Fitz Henry Lane, and James Bard. Furniture, folk art, and needlework are also prominent features of the collection. The museum's New England heritage has brought it an especially large array of decorative arts from the Northeastern United States. Many of these objects were initially collected by the Essex Institute, which was dedicated to preserving the cultural and physical history of Essex County.

The museum's collection of Chinese art, which includes over 6,000 objects, Ceramics, textiles, and calligraphy form the bulk of the collection, which began in the 18th century with exports acquired by New England traders. Even before the founding of the East India Marine Society, missionaries such as Reverend William Bentley were collecting sculptures, fans, and other pieces that would form the foundation of the museum's collection. The largest piece at the museum is the Yin Yu Tang House, a late 18th century home from the Anhui province of China. This house, constructed during the Qing dynasty, was acquired by Nancy Berliner, at the time PEM's curator of Chinese art and culture, before being taken apart and reassembled in Salem.

Among the most important in the United States, the museum's American clothing collection, with examples dating from the early 18th century to the present, represents many of New England's prominent families, including Salem's Crowninshields, who helped establish the city as a seafaring hub. Among its areas of strength are military uniforms, a collection established by the Essex Institute following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, and significant holdings representing the work of notable designers, dressmakers and milliners, including Alexander McQueen, Rei Kawakubo, Jamie Okuma, and hundreds of pieces from legendary fashion icon, Iris Apfel.

The Peabody Essex Museum's collection of Indian art includes over 5,000 objects. PEM's Herwitz Gallery, opened in 2003 and named to honor art collectors Chester and Davida Herwitz, is the first American museum gallery dedicated to modern Indian art. PEM's collection spans a wide array of eras and mediums, forming a detailed record of India's artistic transformations during colonial rule and its aftermath. As PEM's ex curator of South Asia and Korean Art Susan S. Bean observed, "the global development of industrial production brought machine woven textiles, printed images, and photography into competition with handlooms, sculpture, and painting", all of which are art forms well represented throughout PEM's collection.

Featuring approximately 18,300 objects, Much of the collection has its origins in the travels of Edward S. Morse, the third director of the museum, who acquired many pieces over the course of three trips to Japan. Morse also helped raise interest in Japanese art in Massachusetts and New England: as Midori Oka states, Morse was "instrumental in influencing the area intellectuals and connoisseurs to turn their interests to Japanese art".

The Peabody Essex Museum has approximately 1,800 pieces of Korean art in its collection, including ceramics, textiles, and painted screens. The collection began in 1883, as the result of a collaboration between museum director Edward Sylvester Morse and Korean scholar Yu Kil chun, who was a member of the first official Korean delegation to the United States. Much of the collection consists of art of the Joseon dynasty, which occupied the transitional period between the traditional Korean empire and modernity. Many of the pieces in the collection, particularly those from the Joseon period, display the centrality of art in the habits, rituals, and ceremonies of everyday Korean life. As former PEM curator Susan S. Bean observes, art objects were "essential to the conduct of social life because they conveyed values, fulfilled wishes, provided access to deities and ancestors, taught lessons and conferred prestige". This long legacy of trade contributed greatly to the foundation and growth of PEM's maritime art collection, which is among the finest of its kind in the country. The collection includes over 50,000 objects, including paintings, model ships, scrimshaw, and more. Many diverse styles and periods of maritime art are on display in the collection, from navigational tools such as sextants to modern marine art, which addresses "nostalgic themes" and represents "the seafaring life of previous times". One significant feature of the currently installed collection is a recreation of a room in Cleopatra's Barge, an opulent yacht which was built by Salem's Crowninshield family and eventually became the royal yacht of King Kamehameha II.

PEM's collection of Native American art includes over 20,000 objects, The origins of PEM's collection can be traced to even before the museum's 1799 founding: the maritime fur trade, as well as the trading of iron to local tribes, made the exchange of art objects a frequent occurrence. As Richard Conn writes, "in some cases, objects of considerable importance were given by their native owners as gifts to their European trading partners. The intent here was probably to enhance the trading relationship and to insure that the Yankee or British ship would return next year with more iron."

Featuring objects from over 36 different groups of islands in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, the Peabody Essex Museum's collection of Oceanic art contains over 15,000 objects in total. While Salem had little direct trade with Hawaii during the 18th and 19th centuries, regional trade and donations from prominent sea captains led to the acquisition of many significant pieces, including some associated with Kamehameha I and James Cook.

PEM's collection of photography is its largest single collection by number of objects, featuring over 850,000 images.

The museum has extensive collections of rare books, manuscripts, and ephemera in the Phillips Library. On December 8, 2017, Dan L. Monroe, PEM's director and CEO, issued a press release announcing that of historical documents would be permanently relocated to Rowley, Massachusetts; Plummer Hall and Daland House, the two historic buildings which had housed the Phillips Library, would be utilized as office and meeting space.