The Collections

Chipstone collections are concentrated in three main areas: early American furniture, British pottery, and American historical prints and maps. Through a recently established partnership with the Milwaukee Art Museum, many of the foundation’s furniture forms and ceramics are on public view in the American Galleries. A smaller group of furniture also is on display at the Elvehjem Museum at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Many of Chipstone’s holdings also have been made available in Chipstone’s journals and books, and, along with objects from other institutions and collections, in virtual versions of the changing decorative arts exhibits held at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Working in cooperation with a digitizing team in the Library Department at the University of Wisconsin, Chipstone has created on this webpage a digital database that offers high quality images and basic information about the foundation’s holdings. Spring 2003 the furniture collection was available for study. The ceramics collection will follow in the summer of 2003 and the prints in 2006. Our long-term goal is to enhance the individual entries with more comprehensive textual information in the form of catalog entries and short essays that more fully interpret and synthesize particular groups of objects in the collection.