The Walters Art Museum
Manuscripts, ancient objects, jeweled craftsmanship, and European paintings fill a free museum beside Mount Vernon’s Washington Monument.
Artwork inspired by Francis Blackwell Mayer
A tiny carved ivory or illuminated page can hold attention as effectively as a large painting at the Walters. The museum’s collections extend from the ancient Mediterranean to medieval manuscripts, Asian art, and European painting, encouraging unusually close inspection of materials. Its Mount Vernon buildings also preserve the scale and ambitions of Baltimore collecting.
William and Henry Walters assembled much of the founding collection through the international art market. Looking at provenance alongside technique adds a second history to each object: how it was made, and how it traveled here. Conservation interpretation and changing displays make this a museum to revisit in manageable sections rather than exhaust in one circuit.
- District
- Mount Vernon
- Founding collectors
- William and Henry Walters
- Entry
- Always free
Quick guide
- Choose
- Spend time with manuscripts or ancient art before changing floors.
- Look closely
- Use labels to connect a material with its maker’s technique.
Know before you go
- Inspect the surface
- Look for tool marks, repairs, inlay, and paint on small objects.
- Read ownership histories
- Provenance can explain a different journey from the object’s original use.
- Allow for rotation
- Light-sensitive manuscripts and textiles cannot stay on view indefinitely.
- Use the map
- Connected museum buildings can make a direct floor-to-floor route less obvious.
Good to know
A famous work in the collection is not necessarily on display. Manuscripts, textiles, and other fragile objects rotate to limit light exposure.
Notice these
- Illuminated pages
- Carved ivory and metalwork
- Historic gallery proportions