 Entrance, DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum at the Public Hospital of 1773 | |
 | |
| Established | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Location | Colonial Williamsburg, 326 West Francis Street, Williamsburg, Virginia |
| Type | Art gallery |
| Visitors | 250,000 (2014)[1] |
| Website | DWDAM |
37°16′7.9″N 76°42′16.6″W / 37.268861°N 76.704611°W
The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum (DWDAM), is a museum dedicated to British and American fine and decorative arts from 1670-1840, located in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Situated just outside the historic boundary of Colonial Williamsburg, DWDAM was founded with an initial 1982[2] donation by DeWitt Wallace (1889–1981) and his wife Lila Bell Acheson Wallace (1889–1984) — co-founders of Reader's Digest.
The Wallaces donated $12 million to finance reconstruction of the nation's first public mental hospital, the Public Hospital of 1773 and construction of the decorative arts museum — to be connected to the hospital by an underground concourse.[2] Having initially opened in 1985, the museum has since expanded to include the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and will undergo another expansion to open in 2019 with a new, street-level entrance.
The museum features diverse collections related to the founding of the United States — including furniture, paintings, silver, numismatics, ceramics, tools, textiles, glass, maps, weapons, media and other objects from the permanent Colonial Williamsburg collection.[3]
- ^ History dot org
- ^ a b Sandra G. Boodman (April 20, 1982). "Williamsburg Gets $12 Million For Mental Hospital, Museum". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Board Approves $40 Million Art Museums Expansion". Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. November 21, 2016.