A Journey to Auldbrass

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, built on the site of the home of Arthur and Ninah Cummer, opened its doors November 10, 1961. From Ninah Cummer's relatively small collection of sixty pieces that launched the museum, The Cummer's permanent collection has grown to over six thousand works of art encompassing eight thousand years of art history.

The Museum is well known for its collections of significant European and American paintings and for its world-renowned collection of early Meissen porcelain. The Cummer’s unique character is enhanced by three formal gardens surrounding the institution, beautifully situated on the banks of the St. Johns River.

The English Garden, The Italian Garden, and the Olmsted Garden

Two acres of formal historic gardens, created by Mrs. Cummer, enhance the museum campus today. The first garden at The Cummer residence was planted in 1903 and followed the English style.

After the death of Mrs. Ada Gerrish Cummer, the Cummer family estate was divided between her two sons, Waldo and Arthur. Their sister, Mabel Cummer Roe, and her husband, John, built a home on nearby Stockton Street.

Waldo and his wife, Clara, engaged William Lyman Phillips of the renowned Olmsted Brothers firm to design and reshape their expanded property, uniting new and existing elements such as plantings and structural elements as well as amenities and ornaments. Phillips, one of Florida’s best knownd landscape architects, designed Jacksonville's Memorial Park (just a few steps south from The Cummer on Riverside Avenue) and the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami.

While Waldo and Clara were busy at work with Phillips, Ninah May Holden Cummer and Arthur Cummer were hard at work with another renowned American landscape architect, Ellen Biddle Shipman, planning their Italian Garden. Taken as a whole, the gardens of Mr. and Mrs. Waldo Cummer and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Cummer represent an exceptional glimpse into the history of American landscape architecture.

The Cummer grounds are uniquely important to the people of Florida, residents of the Southeast, and the history of landscape architecture in our country. Restoration of the Olmsted Garden is currently underway.

The Art Collections

The European collection at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens contains over eleven hundred paintings, sculptures, works on paper and decorative arts dating from the twelfth to twentieth centuries. The holdings are particularly strong in Old Master paintings, containing works by Gaddi, Aertsen, Vasari, Assereto, Rubens, Snyders, Steen and Lorrain. The collection is arranged chronologically and presents a comprehensive tour through western art history.

The American Art Collection of The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens contains over one thousand paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and works on paper dating

from the eighteenth century to the present. The collection is particularly strong in nineteenth- century landscapes with works by Moran, Lewis, Heade and Kensett and in nineteenth-century portraiture with works by West, Stuart, Sully and Neagle. These paintings are complemented by notable works created by American Impressionists such as Hassam, Miller, Frieseke and Greacen, Regionalists such as Benton and Curry, and Ashcan School artists such as Henri, Bellows and Glakens.

The Ralph H. and Constance I. Wark Collection of early Meissen porcelain is one of the three finest and most comprehensive collections in the world. Ralph Wark (1902-1987) bought his first Meissen piece in 1922, and over the next sixty years acquired more than seven hundred pieces. Before World War II, Mr. Wark was a representative of the National Cash Register Corporation in Europe and traveled extensively on the Continent. At various times, he lived in Hamburg, Paris, London, and Berlin. Ralph Wark and his sister Constance, residents of St. Augustine, donated this unique collection to The Cummer in 1965.

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