Museum
Collections
Denison University's collection currently numbers nearly 8,000 items. These objects come from multiple areas of the world, but primarily derive from Asia, Europe, and North and Central America. A wide variety of media, including stone, wood, paper, lacquer, metal, ivory, and oils, is represented in the collection.
Asia
The Asian collection comprises the largest percentage of the entire collection with approximately 4,000 items. Most of the objects come from Burma and China, with some pieces from Thailand. Denison also houses a Japanese netsuke collection, featuring about two hundred pieces mostly in ivory. More information...
Europe
The European collection contains about 1,000 items, and has a broad scope, ranging from the fifteenth century through the present. The collection primarily consists of prints, drawings, and paintings. More information...
United States
There are about 1,000 objects by United States artists in the Denison collection. Of these, most are prints, etchings, lithographs, drawings, and woodcuts. The remainder of the collection comprises paintings, sculpture, photographs, and watercolors.
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Central America and Native America
The Central American holdings, primarily from the Kuna culture located on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama, range in date from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. The main objects are textiles, wood figural sculptures, baskets, jewelry, ceramics, household and ceremonial items, ritual spears and arrows, manuscripts, and musical instruments.
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