ART + HISTORY + NATURE

WELCOME TO THE FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM, THE HOME OF AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM.

The Museum and Café Flo will be closed July 3 and 4

MUSEUM HOURS
Tuesday through Sunday
10am to 5pm

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM

EXHIBITIONS

Sylvia Harding, Mary Connors, Josephine Brown, Ann Traver, Johanna Kooij, Winifred Laubach, Mary Gordon, Ruby McClernon, Margaret Smith, Dorothy Smith, and Joy Malloy, Bicentennial Quilt. This image of a quilt created for the United States of America's Bicentennial in 1976 features twenty four vividly colored squares. The patchwork quilt portrays historic events, houses, and rural scenes of Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut in commemoration of the Bicentennial. It was based on the idea of the 19th century "friendship" quilt where many people contributed pieces. The pieces were gathered as part of a contest sponsored by the Lyme Historical Society during the summer of 1976. The quilt is now in the collection of the Florence Griswold Museum.

June 27–November 8, 2026

Patchwork: Connecticut Artists Consider 250

In June 2026, the Florence Griswold Museum will mount a juried exhibition of contemporary art to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States. As the historic home of the Lyme Art Colony (1900–1937), the Museum will highlight its legacy of supporting contemporary artists by inviting today’s Connecticut-based artists to submit work that addresses themes of American identity and history over the country’s past 250 years. How do Connecticut artists represent, contribute to, define, and reconsider American identity and history?

September 26 – November 1, 2026

Wee Faerie Village 2026

This year’s Wee Faerie Village is going to rock! Join us for a visit to Gemstone Station. Explore the faerie house walking trail with over two dozen pint-sized artistic creations. A truly beloved autumnal tradition for all ages!

Guy Pène duBois (1884–1958), "Mary Tarleton Knollenberg". The subject of this oil painting is Mary Tarleton Knollenberg, an American sculptor. She sits on a bed in an interior scene, looking to the side out of frame, wearing a stylish yellow top and blue scarf. Artist Guy Pène du Bois painted this expressive, modern portrait of Knollenberg with whom he once had a romantic relationship.

Ongoing

From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection: Highlights from the Florence Griswold Museum

To increase access to the Museum’s wonderful artworks, the Niblack Gallery in our Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery will be dedicated to a long-term installation of selections from the permanent collection. From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection presents highlights in three thematic clusters.

Ongoing

Selections from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company’s gift of their 190-piece collection of American paintings, works on paper, and sculpture to the Florence Griswold Museum in 2001 marked a milestone in the Museum’s history.

ONGOING

An American Place: The Art Colony at Old Lyme

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the village of Old Lyme, Connecticut was the setting for one of the largest and most significant art colonies in America.

EXHIBITIONS

Sylvia Harding, Mary Connors, Josephine Brown, Ann Traver, Johanna Kooij, Winifred Laubach, Mary Gordon, Ruby McClernon, Margaret Smith, Dorothy Smith, and Joy Malloy, Bicentennial Quilt. This image of a quilt created for the United States of America's Bicentennial in 1976 features twenty four vividly colored squares. The patchwork quilt portrays historic events, houses, and rural scenes of Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut in commemoration of the Bicentennial. It was based on the idea of the 19th century "friendship" quilt where many people contributed pieces. The pieces were gathered as part of a contest sponsored by the Lyme Historical Society during the summer of 1976. The quilt is now in the collection of the Florence Griswold Museum.

June 27–November 8, 2026

Patchwork: Connecticut Artists Consider 250

In June 2026, the Florence Griswold Museum will mount a juried exhibition of contemporary art to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States. As the historic home of the Lyme Art Colony (1900–1937), the Museum will highlight its legacy of supporting contemporary artists by inviting today’s Connecticut-based artists to submit work that addresses themes of American identity and history over the country’s past 250 years. How do Connecticut artists represent, contribute to, define, and reconsider American identity and history?

September 26 – November 1, 2026

Wee Faerie Village 2026

This year’s Wee Faerie Village is going to rock! Join us for a visit to Gemstone Station. Explore the faerie house walking trail with over two dozen pint-sized artistic creations. A truly beloved autumnal tradition for all ages!

Guy Pène duBois (1884–1958), "Mary Tarleton Knollenberg". The subject of this oil painting is Mary Tarleton Knollenberg, an American sculptor. She sits on a bed in an interior scene, looking to the side out of frame, wearing a stylish yellow top and blue scarf. Artist Guy Pène du Bois painted this expressive, modern portrait of Knollenberg with whom he once had a romantic relationship.

Ongoing

From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection: Highlights from the Florence Griswold Museum

To increase access to the Museum’s wonderful artworks, the Niblack Gallery in our Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery will be dedicated to a long-term installation of selections from the permanent collection. From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection presents highlights in three thematic clusters.

Ongoing

Selections from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company’s gift of their 190-piece collection of American paintings, works on paper, and sculpture to the Florence Griswold Museum in 2001 marked a milestone in the Museum’s history.

ONGOING

An American Place: The Art Colony at Old Lyme

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the village of Old Lyme, Connecticut was the setting for one of the largest and most significant art colonies in America.

EVENTS

Wee Faerie Camp #2 2026

June 23 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Art•Bar Happy Hour: Hand-Painted Silk Scarves #2

June 25 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day

June 28 @ 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Discovery Sundays

June 28 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Wee Faerie Camp #3 2026

June 30 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Museum Closed

July 3

Museum Closed

July 4

Art Colony Camp #1 2026

July 6 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

WHAT IS THE FOX CHASE?

EVENTS

Wee Faerie Camp #2 2026

June 23 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Art•Bar Happy Hour: Hand-Painted Silk Scarves #2

June 25 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day

June 28 @ 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

COLLECTIONS

Willard Metcalf, Beach and Headlands This impressionistic painting of a rocky headland by Willard Leroy Metcalf is a meeting of land, sea, and sky on a mostly sunny day and appropriately titled “Beach and Headlands.” There are touches of violet, green, and gold in the water and white surf gently laps the shore. The work is one of 46 scenes that the artists of the Lyme Art Colony painted on the wooden walls and door panels of their boardinghouse, now the Florence Griswold Museum. Most of the paintings were created in the early to mid 1900s and were symbols of the artists’ devotion to their hostess Florence Griswold.
John Henry Twachtman, Gloucester Impressionist artist John Henry Twachtman favored the diffused light that pervades this sun-washed landscape and applied his pigments thinly to suggest the summertime brilliance. The white buildings in the town of Gloucester are on either side of the calm pale blue harbor where four sailboats drift. The painting is owned by the Florence Griswold Museum.
Felandus Thames, Believed to be Jenny Freeman in her Sunday’s best Artist Felandus Thames composed this contemporary sculpture using nearly a million hair beads strung vertically into rows to form a tapestry of images that honor Black history, achievement, and presence in Connecticut. The colors and placement of the beads create a quilt-like effect that show a portrait of a Black woman. Surrounding her are vivid patterns of textiles from Africa as well as those from the carpet and wallpaper of the Griswold House and a beaded version of Willard Metcalf’s impressionist painting of mountain laurels. The artwork hangs in the galleries of the Florence Griswold Museum.
Harlan Page, Portrait of a Man A vibrant early American portrait of a man dressed in a dark jacket and white ruffled shirt. His red hair appears aflame against the also fiery orange background. Many historians believe the man in the picture is a visual representation of religious fervor. It is one of only two portraits, and possibly his own likeness, attributed to the artist Harlan Page. Page was “born again” in 1814 during the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening and afterwards devoted himself to evangelism. The painting is owned by the Florence Griswold Museum.
Childe Hassam, The Bathers For one of his contributions to the panels in the Griswold House dining room, impressionist artist Childe Hassam painted a door with two nude bathers in the Lieutenant River. The women pictured are chaste, dreamy nymphs, at their ease in the landscape of Old Lyme. This image is a detail of the work, showing one woman seated in profile perhaps looking at something in her hands. The work is one of 46 scenes that the artists of the Lyme Art Colony painted on the wooden walls and door panels of their boardinghouse, now the Florence Griswold Museum. Most of the paintings were created in the early to mid 1900s and were symbols of the artists’ devotion to their hostess Florence Griswold.
Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Jessie Wilson The subject of this small sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh is a young girl turning her head and shoulders to the side to look back and down at the hem of her flowing dress. The model for the work is Woodrow Wilson’s daughter Jessie. Vonnoh gave this bronze cast to Florence Griswold, whose home is now the Florence Griswold Museum.

COLLECTIONS

OUR HISTORY

JOIN OUR ART COLONY

PLAN YOUR FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM VISIT

MUSEUM HOURS

April through December
Tuesday–Sunday 10am–5pm

January through March
Tuesday–Sunday 10am–4pm

CAFÉ FLO HOURS

Tuesday–Sunday
11:30am–2:30pm

Open seasonally May–October

ADMISSION PRICES

$18 Adults, $17 Seniors (ages 62+), $16 Students (ages 13+ with valid ID), $7.50 Children (ages 5–12), Free to children 4 and under, and Active Duty Military and Veterans.

PLAN A VISIT TO THE ARTISTIC TOWN OF OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT