The Ivy League university of Yale has many points of prestige. Among them are these excellent museums and galleries open to the public and Yalies alike.
Scupture at the Yale Center for British Art (Photo: pushypenguin via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
New Haven became one of the earliest English towns in what is modern-day Connecticut, when it was settled by Puritans in 1638. Within decades the town had its own school and in 1701, two significant developments conferred an importance upon New Haven that has endured the centuries. It was made Connecticut’s co-capital, along with Hartford, which it remained until 1873, when Hartford went on alone. In that time, however, there was much development in the city. The second, more important, development for New Haven came in 1701 with the establishing of Yale University.
No stranger to excellence, Yale University routinely ranks among the very best academic institutions in the world, it is the second oldest Ivy League university in the United States and has consistently added new departments through the years, including the schools of Medicine (1810), Fine Arts (1869), and Architecture (1916). Crucially, Yale was also among the earliest adopters of university-affiliated museums and galleries, which are still enlightening students and the general public to this day. Here are five of Yale’s finest, available to visit for free today.
A John Frederick Herring painting at Yale University Art Gallery (Photo: Rawpixel Ltd via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Yale University Art Gallery
Vast would be an understated descriptor of the art collection at Yale University Art Gallery. It was founded in 1832 almost by chance, when the painter John Trumbull, whose works focused primarily on the American Revolutionary War, bequeathed around 100 artworks to Yale. The gallery that was created to display them became the first university-affiliated art museum in the Americas. Nearly two centuries, and countless donations later, Yale’s permanent collection has come to encompass importance pieces from European artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Hans Holbein; 20th Century masters such as Picasso, Kandinsky and Jackson Pollock; and artworks from numerous other categories including world art and ancient sculptures. Opens Tue to Sun.
Address: 1111 Chapel St
Yale School of Architecture Gallery
Architecture is one of the great, unsung art forms. Although we may not realize it, the work of architects impacts our lives constantly. Beyond the visual impression made by facades and interior spaces, it determines our comfort and how we are able to move around our urban spaces. That foundational principle is expertly built upon by the Yale School of Architecture Gallery’s temporary exhibitions. Past iterations included Give and Take, which transformed a room into a place of giving that challenged the university’s very own culture of hierarchy and competition. Other exhibitions have explored the work of the Yale School of Architecture’s own alumni. Opens Mon to Sat.
Address: 180 York St
Yale Center for British Art (Photo: Gunnar Klack via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Yale Center for British Art
If your love of eminent artists is not sufficiently sated by the main Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art offers up a deeper dive into an esoteric branch of the art world from across the Atlantic. Nowhere, outside of the United Kingdom itself, will you find a more complete collection of British artworks under one roof. The greats, such as JMW Turner, Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable are all featured in the collection, along with works by American and European artists who lived and worked in Britain at some point. Therefore, paintings by Whistler and Anthony van Dyck are also on display. Opens Tue to Sun.
Address: 1080 Chapel St
Yale University Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments
Many of the Yale collections emerged naturally from the desire to provide top quality education to students. With that in mind, when the Yale School of Music was established in 1894, so began the university’s collection of musical instruments. By the turn of the 20th century, historic instruments with keys were already forming the nucleus of an important collection, with some of the pieces, such as an original John Snetzler organ, dating to the mid-1700s. Other instruments from world music and from across the spectrum of the orchestral sections make up a permanent collection of over 1,000 pieces. The music school’s concert series, which often features some of these instruments, brings the historic instruments to sonorous life again. Open Tue to Fri and Sun.
Address: 15 Hillhouse Ave
Beinecke Rare Book Library (Photo: Gunnar Klack via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
There are, quite unsurprisingly, many excellent Yale libraries dotted around the Connecticut city of New Haven. Among the collections, the most notable and rare books have made their way into the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and, occasionally, make it to the displays of the library’s public exhibition on the ground floor. Among the highlights is a Gutenberg Bible, one of 49 known surviving copies of the West’s first book printed using movable type. Many other books come from Yale University’s (then known as Yale College) first library when it was founded in 1701. Open daily with restricted hours.
Address: 121 Wall St
Honorable mentions: One glaring omission on this list is the Yale Peabody Museum, a delightful natural history museum which was due to remain closed for extensive renovation at the time of research for a few more years. It is due to reopen to the public in 2024. Yale also has a handful of additional buildings with intriguing exhibits and events, such as the Whitney Humanities Center.
Please note that proof of your Covid-19 vaccination is required for entry to all of the museums and galleries listed above. Mask requirements may still also be in place at some museums.
Yale University Art Gallery stairway (Photo: Sage Ross via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)