The Museum’s landmark Walker Art Building was commissioned for the College by Harriet and Sophia Walker in honor of their uncle, a Boston businessman who had supported the creation of the first small art gallery at Bowdoin in the mid-nineteenth century. Designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, & White, the building was completed in 1894 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.[1][2] At the entrance are a pair of Medici lion sculptures.
History
The museum's collection originated from separate donations of art from James Bowdoin III in 1811 and 1826. Having been housed in a number of different locations during its history, the museum found a permanent home in the Walker Art Building in 1894. While the building had been renovated once in 1974, the $20.8 million renovation by architects Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston that finished in 2007 received a great deal of publicity for its creation of a new modern entrance to the museum while preserving the structural integrity of the original building.
