Sarah H. Joslyn opened the Joslyn Art Museum in 1931 in memory of her husband George, and it remains the largest fine arts museum in Nebraska. This building began as Sarah H. Joslyn’s vision; she opened it in 1931 in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. Their story reaches back to Vermont, to a move to Des Moines in 1879 for George’s new printing job that involved manual labor, and then to Omaha in 1880 where he managed a printing branch and went on to found his own company.
Since that original opening the museum has grown through several expansions, the most recent completed in 2024. Inside, you would find what makes the Joslyn singular in Nebraska: a comprehensive permanent collection of over 12,000 objects. Those holdings include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European art, Western American Art, Chinese and Japanese art, and contemporary art.
The Joslyn is also home to the Margre H. Durham Center for Western Studies, established in 1980, which stewards two of the country’s most important collections of works by Western artists Karl Bodmer and Alfred Jacob Miller. Notice the more than 12,000 objects inside, including rare works by Karl Bodmer and Alfred Jacob Miller.