The University of Mississippi Museum

The University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses complex serves as a cultural center for the university community and beyond. Among holdings are Southern folk art, Greek and Roman antiquities, 19thCentury scientific instruments, and American fine art. Part of the museum complex is Rowan Oak, a historic literary legacy that was once the home of William Faulker, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Rowan Oak was renovated and reopened to the public in 2001 and continues to draw international visitors each year. The museum also owns the Walton-Young Historic House – once home to critic and satirist Stark Young. The museum complex began with the opening of the Mary Buie Museum in 1939 as a result of the vision of Mary Skipwith Buie of Oxford, an avid collector and an academically trained artist. She left her personal art collection to the city of Oxford in her will, and these items are in the museum’s permanent collections. Funding for the museum came from the generosity of her family, the Adair Skipwiths, and such government programs as the Works Progress Administration. Oxford operated the original museum from 1939 through 1974 before deeding it to the university.