Delaware Art Museum
Wilmington’s art museum pairs an exceptional illustration collection with British Pre-Raphaelite painting, American art, and a nine-acre sculpture garden.
Artwork inspired by Edward Loper Sr.
The Delaware Art Museum began as a memorial to Wilmington illustrator Howard Pyle, whose dramatic images helped define American storybook art. His work is a starting point, not the whole museum: the illustration galleries connect picture-making to publishing, while Samuel Bancroft’s Pre-Raphaelite collection invites a different look at detail, poetry, and nineteenth-century British painting. Notice how an artist selects one moment and persuades you to imagine what happens next.
American and contemporary galleries complicate that older narrative; the Copeland Sculpture Garden carries the visit outside. Edward Loper Sr., a Wilmington painter who taught here, is a revealing local thread: his vivid color makes familiar streets feel newly visible. Pair one close-reading gallery with the garden instead of racing through every era.
- Founded
- To honor Howard Pyle
- Outdoor collection
- Copeland Sculpture Garden
- Local artist
- Edward Loper Sr.
Quick guide
- Begin with Pyle
- Compare how an illustration fixes one dramatic moment in a larger story.
- Then change lenses
- Set a Pre-Raphaelite picture beside a modern Delaware work.
Know before you go
- Read an image as a story
- Look for the gesture or object that reveals what just happened.
- Compare surfaces
- Pre-Raphaelite precision and modern color solve different visual problems.
- Give Loper time
- His Wilmington scenes use bright color to build solid streets and interiors.
- Take the garden loop
- Outdoor sculpture changes with viewpoint, light, and season.
Good to know
The free Thursday evening is seasonal, not year-round. Special exhibitions or programs can follow separate ticket rules.
Notice these
- Pyle illustration
- Bancroft Pre-Raphaelites
- Sculpture among mature trees