The Slater Memorial Museum is a historic building and

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

on the grounds of the

Norwich Free Academy The Norwich Free Academy (NFA), founded in 1854 and in operation since 1856, is a coeducational independent school for students between the 9th and 12th grade. Located in Norwich, Connecticut, the Academy serves as the primary high school for Nor ...

Norwich, Connecticut Norwich ( ) is a city in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Yantic River, Yantic, Shetucket River, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers flow into the city and form its harbor, from which the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River f ...

, designed by the architect Stephen C. Earle.. The building was begun in 1885, dedicated on November 4, 1886, and opened to the public in 1888. It was commissioned by the textile magnate

William A. Slater William Albert Slater (1857–1919), was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist from Connecticut who was a member of the prominent Slater family. Early life and career William Slater, the son of John Fox Slater and grandson ...

in honor of his father, John Fox Slater (1815–1884). The building, constructed of brick and brownstone in the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

style, with rusticated masonry, medieval decorative elements, and the lavish use of tiles and terracotta, is considered by some to be Earle's finest work. It is a contributing property in the Chelsea Parade Historic District in the National Park Service's

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The adjacent Converse Art Gallery, built in 1906, was designed by the firm of Cudworth & Woodworth. The original museum collection consisted of 227

plaster casts A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – ...

of ancient

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

, and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

sculpture, acquired in 1887–1888 with the assistance of Edward Robinson, the curator of classical antiquities at the

Museum of Fine Arts in Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 work ...

. These are still displayed in the main hall of the building, and together represent one of the largest surviving collections of plaster casts in the United States. The original displays also included

electrotype Electrotyping (also galvanoplasty) is a chemical method for forming metal parts that exactly reproduce a model. The method was invented by a Prussian engineer Moritz von Jacobi in Russia in 1838, and was immediately adopted for applications in ...

copies of ancient Greek coins and Renaissance medals, together with photographs of European art and architecture. The collection has since expanded to include colonial and local historic artifacts, American and European paintings and decorative arts, African and Oceanic sculpture, and Native American objects.

References

External links

Slater Memorial Museum
(official web page) Museums in New London County, Connecticut Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Connecticut Buildings and structures in Norwich, Connecticut Art museums and galleries in Connecticut History museums in Connecticut Historic district contributing properties in Connecticut Plaster cast collections National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut {{Connecticut-museum-stub

See also

References

External links