Lucy Copeland Farnsworth, last surviving member of her family and the daughter of a successful Rockland lime merchant instructed in her will that a building she owned on Main Street “be put into condition to serve as an art gallery,” which along with a library and the mid-Victorian house she grew up in were to be open to the public and named after her father. The task of creating and operating the museum was assigned by her trustee, the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, to Robert Peabody Bellows, a Harvard graduate and a partner in the Boston architectural firm of Aldrich and Bellows.
The Farnsworth Art Museum opened its doors to the public on August 15, 1948, and offers a nationally recognized collection of works from many of America’s greatest artists. With 20,000 square feet of gallery space and over 15,000 works in the collection. Its Wyeth Center features works of Andrew, N.C. and Jamie Wyeth.
