Chrysler Museum of Art

The history of the Chrysler Museum starts with more than a century of hard work and dedication by many, many residents of Hampton Roads who believed in the civic virtue of art and art education.Those rewarding efforts moved to an entirely different level 40 years ago, with what is now considered one of strongest and most varied gifts ever made in American history to a single museum by a single person. Walter Chrysler, Jr., scion of the automotive company founder, donated nearly 10,000 objects as part of an arrangement where the Norfolk Academy of Arts and Sciences became the Chrysler Museum of Art. In the history of the Museum, donations from collectors such as Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbish, Emile Wolf, Goldsborough Serpell, Erwin and Adrianne Joseph and the family of Joel  Cooper have dramatically enriched the Museum’s collection. Members of the Mowbray Arch Society have contributed great works to the Chrysler, and the Norfolk Society of Arts remains active to this day.