Our Collection

The heart of the Freeport Art Museum is an extensive and expanding art collection that spans 4,000 years of humankind’s aesthetic endeavors.  Beginning in 1976, FAM accepted a collection of art acquired by Mr. W. T. Rawleigh, a prominent Freeport industrialist who traveled the world in connection with his business and collected art for his personal collection. His generosity in sharing his acquisitions led to our first collection. The collection has continued to grow through acquisitions and generous donations from collectors across the country. The Museum’s tribal holdings are one of the largest in Illinois. FAM received a gift of Indonesian textiles valued at nearly $500,000. This donation was part of a total collection shared with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fowler Museum at UCLA. FAM was honored to be a part of this distinguished group of museums.

The Rawleigh Collection

During the first quarter of the 20th century, W.T. Rawleigh founded an international corporation and amassed a personal fortune. Like other men of his era, he regarded his bounty as a charge to share with the community. To that end he used his fortune to beautify Freeport. The Rawleigh collection formed the core of what is now the Freeport Art Museum.

The Parvin Collection

One of the first major donations from outside the Freeport area, this distinguished collection of antiquities includes the mummy case of a child, perhaps the most popular item in the museum. Also in the Egyptian group are a painted funerary box, canopic jars, and mummified animals, as well as jewelry, amulets and other small artifacts.

The Gibson and Werner Collections

The Museum has been fortunate to receive gifts from "friends of friends." These benefactors, not personally known to us, have chosen our museum as a suitable home for their treasures. We received a large group of early Ecuadorian pottery, including both slip-decorated vessels and figurines, from a collector in Indiana. From the collection of a textile scholar/conservator in California, we received a group of 19th and early 20th century Bolivian textiles. This type of specific donation enables us to expand already existing areas of the collection.

The Dedrick Collection

This donation of a wide range of objects from a major museum benefactor establishes whole areas within the collection, as well as expanding and enriching every other area. Extensive ethnographic holdings, representing five continents, magnify the significance of this collection, allowing whole cultures to be represented.The Dedrick donations include the oldest pieces in the Pre-Columbian, Ancient Near East and Classical collections. This collection also brings early prints (including Schongauer, Durer and Lucas Cranach, among others), as well as prints of the 17th and 18th centuries (Gottsius, Hogarth, and William Blake).

The Rilling Collection

Dr. Rilling and his family, who live near Philadelphia, have generously shared with our museum a broad cross-section of their remarkable collection of tribal arts. Hundreds of objects, including a “spirit canoe” from Irian Jaya and “orator’s table” from Papua New Guinea have enriched our holdings. We have also received a number of Polynesian palace bark cloths.