A Bustling Yet Underrated Connecticut City Is Home To America's Oldest Public Art Museum

Roughly halfway between the art-filled cities of New York and Boston lies Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, home to America's oldest continuously operating public art museum: The Wadsworth Atheneum. Opened to the public in 1844, the Wadsworth Atheneum was the brainchild of Daniel Wadsworth, the son of a very wealthy Connecticut banker and merchant. Wadsworth, who had traveled throughout Europe on a Grand Tour, was an amateur artist and drew inspiration from European art and museum institutions to establish an American equivalent.

Today, the Wadsworth collection spans five connected buildings. However, this American museum is where the architecture may even rival the art. The first of the five, constructed in 1844, the Wadsworth building was designed as an impressive Gothic Revival castle. The museum initially held 79 paintings and three sculptures but has grown to house over 50,000 works of art, including Hudson River School paintings, Greek and Roman antiquities, American and European decorative arts, and major masterpieces by Caravaggio, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Salvador Dali. 

The Wadsworth Atheneum is located in the heart of Hartford and is a 20-minute drive from the city's Bradley International Airport (BDL). The museum is open Thursday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and adult tickets are priced at $20. For art and history lovers looking for more to see in Hartford, venture a few steps away from the Atheneum to the eclectic oddities museum of Connecticut's Old State House.

The Wadsworth Atheneum's impressive collection covers 5,000 years of art history, from antiquity to today. One of the museum's major donors was the Hartford-born financier J.P. Morgan. He funded the Morgan Memorial Building and Morgan Great Hall (now the centerpiece of the museum, where nearly 100 American and European paintings are showcased in salon format). Another unique space to explore is the Cabinets of Art and Curiosity, brimming with European objet d'art, such as ancient bronzes and important porcelain from the Morgan collection.

In addition to the Italian Baroque scenes, colonial American portraits, and Impressionist icons are a sizable collection of postwar and contemporary works, from pop art to more recent photography and video art. Another important building not to miss is the Austin House, a National Historic Landmark located about 2 miles from the museum. This Venetian-inspired villa with lavish Rococo interiors was built in 1930 for Arthur Everett Austin Jr., the director of the Atheneum from 1927 to 1944.

"This is an extraordinarily rich and diverse museum, where one could easily spend a couple of days lingering through a labyrinth of rooms, periods and art forms," raved a Tripadvisor reviewer. "To me, the most remarkable aspect of the museum is the delightful collection of ceramics, many of which were donated over 100 years ago by Pierpoint Morgan." On your next visit to New England, stop in Hartford and explore the Atheneum, a precious gem that helped pioneer public art museums in the country. For more adventures in Connecticut, check out this underrated pitstop that will leave you with a full belly and a good book.