This weekend, Chris surprised me and took me out for a day of adventures that included a stop at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass. Even if I didn’t enjoy the art (which I did) the drive to this museum would have been worth the entire trip for me, as the DeCordova is located in a residential area of Lincoln where the houses are all historic and beautifully maintained. Along with the fall leaves and the rainy day that we had on Saturday, it was a gorgeous trip.

A bit of history from the museum’s Web site:

The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park is located on the former estate of Julian de Cordova (1851-1945). The self-educated son of a Jamaican merchant, de Cordova became a successful tea broker, wholesale merchant, investor, and president of a glass company in Somerville, Massachusetts. Travel and art were his passions, and de Cordova once wrote that he collected “everything that took [his] fancy in every country of the world.” In an era before airplanes and automobiles, Julian and his wife Elizabeth were hardy tourists who transversed the globe several times. Inspired by his trips to Spain and his own Spanish heritage, Julian remodeled his summer home in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 1910 to resemble a European castle.

When de Cordova died, he left his collection and estate to the town of Lincoln with the stipulation that it would become a museum of art after his death. Ironically, independent appraisers found that his collection was not worth much (and was of little general interest) so the trustees turned the estate into what was at the time one of the region’s only museums of contemporary art. Today, the museum is dedicated to regional modern art. My favorite part of the museum was definitely the sculptures, which are scattered throughout the grounds.

This museum is much more impressive in person than over the Internet, but the museum’s Web site has some cool features, including a video of their current exhibit “Trainscape: Installation Art for Modern Railroads,” which includes commissioned exhibits from 12 New England artists who put together worlds for a traditional modern railroad.

Popularity: unranked [?]

This weekend, Chris surprised me and took me out for a day of adventures that included a stop at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass. Even if I didn’t enjoy the art (which I did) the drive to this museum would have been worth the entire trip for me, as the DeCordova is located in a residential area of Lincoln where the houses are all historic and beautifully maintained. Along with the fall leaves and the rainy day that we had on Saturday, it was a gorgeous trip.

A bit of history from the museum’s Web site:

The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park is located on the former estate of Julian de Cordova (1851-1945). The self-educated son of a Jamaican merchant, de Cordova became a successful tea broker, wholesale merchant, investor, and president of a glass company in Somerville, Massachusetts. Travel and art were his passions, and de Cordova once wrote that he collected “everything that took [his] fancy in every country of the world.” In an era before airplanes and automobiles, Julian and his wife Elizabeth were hardy tourists who transversed the globe several times. Inspired by his trips to Spain and his own Spanish heritage, Julian remodeled his summer home in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 1910 to resemble a European castle.

When de Cordova died, he left his collection and estate to the town of Lincoln with the stipulation that it would become a museum of art after his death. Ironically, independent appraisers found that his collection was not worth much (and was of little general interest) so the trustees turned the estate into what was at the time one of the region’s only museums of contemporary art. Today, the museum is dedicated to regional modern art. My favorite part of the museum was definitely the sculptures, which are scattered throughout the grounds.

This museum is much more impressive in person than over the Internet, but the museum’s Web site has some cool features, including a video of their current exhibit “Trainscape: Installation Art for Modern Railroads,” which includes commissioned exhibits from 12 New England artists who put together worlds for a traditional modern railroad.

Popularity: unranked [?]