Hartwick college

The Yager Museum of Art & Culture cares for 17,000 objects. The Collection can be divided into four main categories: archaeological, ethnographic, fine arts, and historical. The Museum maintains both a permanent collection and a non-accessioned, educational collection. Each collection category is described below. Please click on a category to view a list of major donations.

Archaeology
The archaeological collection contains artifacts and specimens representing the Upper Susquehanna region of New York State, the American Southwest, Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. Items in the collection include, but are not limited to, lithics, textiles, pottery, glass beads, and metal goods.

• Willard E. Yager Upper Susquehanna Collection: 5,415 artifacts including potsherds, lithics, beads, and metal goods collected between 1888 and 1927 in central New York.
• Adequentaga Collection: 1,547 artifacts containing projectile points, potsherds, etc., which were collected by Bruce E. Raemsch in 1969 and 1970 from a site near Oneonta, NY.
• Spraker Collection: 2,222 artifacts donated by Roland Spraker in 1963. This collection contains gouges, celts, bannerstones, gorgets, and points from the Susquehanna Valley, NY.
• Timlin Collection: 1,383 artifacts collected by Bruce E. Raemsch from a site near Cobleskill, NY.

Ethnographic
The ethnographic collection contains items from North, Central, and South America. Native North American culture areas represented in the collection are Northeast, Plains, Southwest, and California. Other ethnographic items are from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, and the Amazon. The collection includes, but is not limited to, baskets, pottery, clothing, rugs, jewelry, and masks.

• Yager General Collection: 304 artifacts including baskets, gourds, ollas, and tools collected during the early 1900s by Willard E. Yager, from the American Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast.
• Furman Collection: 231 artifacts from Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru donated by Aaron Furman, Bess Cohen, and Dora Stillman de Marin.
• Sandell Collection: 926 artifacts collected by Ralph Sandell, an Oneonta native, in the highlands and lowlands of Ecuador and Peru from 1946 to 1973.
• Royal Gifford Collection: 398 items from Micronesia consisting primarily of crafts made for the commercial market. Gifford also donated a large collection of archival material dealing with his time in Micronesia. Items are from the Republic of the Marshal Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, Republic of Nauru, and the Republic of Kirbati.

Fine Arts
The Fine Arts collection contains 1,000 works dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries and consists of paintings, drawings, prints, icons, and sculpture. The collection is primarily American but also has items from Europe, Russia, and Asia.

• Louis van Ess Collection: 99 works of art including paintings, prints, sculpture, and icons. Artists represented in the collection include Hassam, Blakelock, Martin, and Twachtman.
• Merritt Collection: 49 paintings by artists such as Glenn Newell, Atkinson Fox, J. H. Boston, and William Otis Swett.
• Brewster Collection: 23 oil paintings by Anna Richards Brewster.
• Byard Collection: 83 paintings and prints; artists represented include Carl Schmitt, Watanabe Shotei, Honen, and Toyohiro.

Historical
The historical collection consists of textiles, housewares, furniture, and coins. The majority of the historical material came from the estate of Margaret Brigham Bunn.

New Acquisitions

• Eight 19th century coverlets
• Print by Sidney Chafetz
• Kosa oil painting of John Burroughs
• Twelve 20th century Chinese reverse painted bottles