If you're curious about the artworks in our collection, this object group is a great place to start. Our staff has created thematic selections from our collection for you to browse. And the best part? We're constantly expanding our themes section with a wide variety of subjects, so keep returning for more additions.

Are you looking for ideas on how to use the Samek Art Museum collection in your curriculum? Look at examples of how other courses have used the museum as a primary source to bring classroom subjects into the real world.

The Poster Program, an initiative by the Samek Art Museum, allows Bucknell faculty and staff to express their style by decorating their office and other areas of campus with reproductions of works of art from the Samek's permanent collection.

Stuart Coyne '48, a Bucknell alum, assembled an impressive collection of primarily 20th-century artworks, from Sonia Delaunay to Pablo Picasso, before bequeathing all 264 to the Samek Art Museum in 2023.

In 2020, James Turnure, former Acting Director of the Samek Art Museum, and Samuel H. Kress Professor of Art History Emeritus for over 40 years at Bucknell University, donated his collection of 110 Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities to the Samek Art Museum.

Ellen Clarke Bertrand was an heiress to a silver fortune whose altruism shaped Bucknell into the school it is today. This includes her generous donations of 84 artworks to the Samek Art Museum. Her collection encompasses some of the museum's most prized paintings, from Maurice Prendergast's Paris Omnibus to Ambrosius Benson's A Nativity Scene and much more.

Former Pennsylvania State Senator Andrew J. Sordoni's 1942 donation of over 700 Japanese objects, including inro, netsuke, tsuba, fuchi, kashira, and swords, to Bucknell University is a significant event in the Samek Art Museum's history. The Sordoni Collection, which still forms the majority of our Asian artifacts, is a testament to his generosity.

In 1976, Christine Wood Rhodes left over 100 works of art from her collection to Bucknell University. At her request, those works were added to the Blanchard Gummo Collection, significantly expanding the collection to a total of 129 artworks, 86 of which can be viewed below. This expansion not only honored the influence of Bucknell Professor of Art Blanchard Gummo but also diversified the collecti...

The Leiser Collection, which consists of 65 works of art, was established in 1957. It was donated by Andrew A. Leiser Jr. and Marie Leiser Bostwick, who graduated from Bucknell in 1899, to honor their father, Andrew Albright Leiser, an 1869 Bucknell alum. The collection, a testament to the beauty of art, includes some of the Samek Art Museum's most stunning landscape paintings.

The Rouner Collection was established with a donation of 12 artworks from Dr. and Mrs. Arthur A. Rouner in 1970. Rouner, a dedicated collector, gathered a wealth of prints, rare books, and historical memorabilia. This collection includes the life mask of Abraham Lincoln and Rembrandt's Christ Healing the Sick (The Hundred Guilder Print), connecting us to significant moments in history.

The Kress Collection encompasses European art of the principal continental schools from the 13th to the early 19th centuries. Between 1929 and 1961, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation donated some of the collection to regional and academic art museums throughout the United States. Bucknell was given 22 paintings and 1 sculpture in 1961. The Foundation was managed by Samuel’s younger brother, Rush Kres...

In 1999, Frank '42 and Eleanor '41 Gifford donated 46 prints by James Gillray, a British caricaturist and printmaker of the late 18th century famous for his political and social satires. The Guardian referred to James Gillray in 2015 as the father of political cartoons.