The College of Wooster Art Museum collections have grown from gifts in the early years of the College’s formation to a collection of over 8,000 objects spanning 4,000 years of world history! In addition to ethnographic objects from around the world, the museum holds drawings, prints, and paintings from the fifteenth century to the present.
Donations continue to comprise the largest part of the collection, with the establishment of the Raymond Machesney Art Acquisition Endowment in 2018, we now aim to strengthen and diversify our holdings by seeking out works that reflect critical contemporary ideas and social concerns.
First official collection object? The mummy and sarcophagus of Tai Irty Bai, donated to the College in 1886. Other objects collected by the College prior to 1901 were lost in the Old Main fire along with their records.
Largest gift? Nearly 5,000 prints and drawings comprise the John Taylor Arms Collection, a gift of Ward M. and Miriam C. Canaday, in 1968.
The oldest object? A Chinese neolithic ceramic vase from about 2000-1700 BCE.
With over 1000 objects excavated from the site of Pella (Fahl), Jordan, from 1967-1983, the collection includes ceramic vessels and figurines, glassware, jewelry and metalwork, coins, and small mosaics and stonework. Out of view for many years, this material is now being studied, catalogued, and documented in the Pella @ Wooster collaborative project (@pellawooster on Instagram).
The College of Wooster Special Collections houses archival materials (field notes, documents, slides, correspondence, photographs, clippings, and publications) related to the Pella Excavations.
For more information or access to the Pella Archaeological Collection please email artmuseum@wooster.edu.
In 1885 Presbyterian missionaries teaching in Egypt purchased four mummies and sarcophagi in Akhmim, Egypt, for $8 each. Three were shipped to the US in 1886 and distributed to colleges where the missionaries were affiliated. The Wooster mummy was displayed in Old Main until the fire in 1901 and the coffin shows the evidence of soot and water damage. In the 1960s she entered the Art Museum’s collection where she has remained since.
Over the years, research has revealed much about the identity of the mummy. X-rays and CT scans indicated that it belongs to a woman, who died in her 30s or early 40s. She shows healed injuries on her right side that resulted in a shortened leg and curvature to her spine. Carbon 14 analysis of the linen wrappings indicate that she died between 320 and 240 BCE. After the sarcophagus was partially cleaned in 2005, scholar Jonathan Elias examined the hieroglyphics and suggested that the name of the woman was Ta-Irty-Bai or “Two Eyes of My Soul.”
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For more information about the collections or to make an appointment to view an object, contact us at artmuseum@wooster.edu.