Celebrate 100-Year History & Oral History Project Book

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John Frederick Kensett (1816–1872), “Fourteen Mile Island, Lake George,” oil on canvas, gift of George N. Morgan, 1946.

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Urn “International Centre Piece,” 1900, modeled by Frederick Salter, made by the Belleek Pottery Ltd, porcelain, Parian ware, 27½ by 16 inches, gold medal winner, Paris exposition, 1900.

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Southern two-toed sloth skeleton Choloepus didactylus, which came to the museum alive. When it died, Paul Howes, curator, director and expert taxidermist, mounted the remains.

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THE BRUCE MUSEUM – A CENTURY OF CHANGE JUNE 2–AUGUST 19 w/3 cuts

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GREENWICH, CONN. — The new exhibition “The Bruce Museum — A Century of Change” highlights the museum’s nearly 100-year-old history and joins in the celebration of the recent publication of the Greenwich Library Oral History Project’s book of the same name. On view in the Bantle Lecture Gallery from June 2 to August 19, will be photographs, fine art and natural history objects associated with each of the seven museum directors. Some the museum’s most valued pieces will be on display along with some of the more unusual specimens and artifacts.

When Robert M. Bruce bequeathed his home to the town of Greenwich in 1908, he stipulated that it should become a “natural history, historical and art museum.” The museum began primarily as a natural history museum, because according to the oral history of Paul Howes, “We decided that he [Robert Moffat Bruce] preferred natural history because it was first in the list in his will.”

Howes was responsible for the collection and display of the majority of the natural history collection. Several mounted specimens on view were collected by Howes, including a colorful toucan and the skeleton of a sloth. Natural history items were not the only things Howes collected during his 48-year tenure as curator and director, however. Many of the museum’s important paintings were acquired under his direction, including John Frederick Kensett’s “14 Mile Island, Lake George,” which will be on exhibit.

In addition to collection artifacts, animal specimens, minerals and paintings on view, the exhibition will spotlight historical items such as the admissions sign from the 1960s that reads: “Closed on Saturdays and Major Holidays.” Raymond Owen instituted that policy because, “During school vacations … I found that the kids would come with their lunch in a bag and be waiting outside when the museum opened, and they were expected to spend the whole day in the museum. We couldn’t do anything except try to look after these kids. We knew that Saturday would be the same thing — their mothers would dump them there so they could go shopping. So we were not open.”

Showcasing a century of collecting, the exhibition also will feature art and science objects acquired under Directors John B. Clark, Hollister Sturges III, Homer McK Rees and current Executive Director Peter C. Sutton.

The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive. For information, www.brucemuseum.org or 203-869-0376.