About the Collection

Swarthmore College was founded in 1864 by members of the Religious Society of Friends. Its permanent collection holds several important works that are closely related to Swarthmore’s history, including two versions of The Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks. A Quaker alumnus, Fredric Newlin Price, Class of 1905, and the founder/director of Ferargil Gallery in New York, catalyzed the development of the College’s permanent collection. As director of the Benjamin West Society, Price promoted the appreciation and curricular use of art at Swarthmore. From 1931 until 1954, the West Society developed a collection which includes more than 200 drawings and several notable paintings by Benjamin West, whose childhood home on campus is now a national historic landmark.

The collection also includes early American and Modernist paintings by notable painters, including James Peale, Thomas Birch, Daniel Garber, Robert Henri, and John Steuart Curry; and Fern Coppedge. The College also displays fresco panels by James Egleson, Class of 1929, who majored in engineering at Swarthmore before serving as an apprentice to the Mexican muralist, Jose Clemente Orozco.

In the second half of the 20th century, the collection received numerous donations of modern and contemporary art from Phillip Bruno, who directed Staempfli and Marlborough Galleries in New York City. Bruno also facilitated major donations, including works by Harry Bertoia and David Strohmeyer, which helped build the collection of outdoor sculptures. In 1967, one of the first notable installations of public art on campus, Alexander Calder's Back to Rio, (1959) was gifted in honor of Associate Professor of Economics William H. Brown Jr. (1922-1966).

In 1984, the Martin S. Ackerman Foundation donated 150 contemporary prints by British artists. In the following years, the collection received numerous additional gifts, including works on paper by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Henry Moore, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Andy Warhol. 

The creation of the List Gallery in 1991 further stimulated the growth and diversification of the collection through gifts and purchases associated with contemporary artists featured in its temporary exhibitions. Notable acquisitions in recent years include works by Paul S. Briggs and Gee’s Bend quilter Mary Lee Bendolph.

The preservation and reinstallation of a series of frescos by James D. Egleson is just one of many curatorial initiatives led by Mari S. Michener Professor Emerita of Art History Constance Hungerford (1948-2021), who oversaw the College art collection for more than four decades until her retirement in 2020. 

In 2023, the College established the Swarthmore College Art Collection, dedicated to the preservation, appreciation, and pedagogical use of accessioned objects. The inaugural director and Collection manager began the process of working with College stakeholders to develop and use the collection in support of the College mission. Plans are currently underway to digitize the collection for expanded online access and to curate List Gallery exhibitions that feature collection works.

The Swarthmore College Art Collection is complemented by Special Collections in McCabe Libraries, which include the Rare Book Room, Friends Historical Library, and Swarthmore College Peace Collection.