UNIVERSITY PARK, PA.- The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State is honored to be the recipient of nearly 200 works of art as part of the estate of Barbara R. Palmer, longtime benefactor, beloved friend, and champion of the museum, who passed away in January 2019. The bequest of her world-class collection will elevate the already significant national reputation of Penn State’s art museum.

“Both Penn State and central Pennsylvania have been immeasurably enriched through Barbara and Jim Palmer’s commitment to the arts and the community, and their legacy will live on through all who experience the Palmers’ collection on our campus,” said Penn State President Eric J. Barron. “The University is deeply honored that Barbara chose to entrust these works to our institution, and we look forward to preserving and sharing this generous gift.”

Widely considered one of the finest private collections of American art in the country, the collection includes works by well-known nineteenth-century artists and boasts strengths in Ashcan realism and Stieglitz-circle modernism, as well as works by prominent artists of the mid- to late twentieth century. Highlights include major paintings by Frederic Edwin Church, Winslow Homer, Martin Johnson Heade, John Sloan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Thomas Hart Benton, and many other notable American artists. Also represented are significant works on paper by Mary Cassatt, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin, Charles Demuth, and Chuck Close, as well as several major sculptures by Seymour Lipton and an impressive collection of late twentieth-century ceramics.

Palmer Museum Director Erin M. Coe described the landmark bequest as “truly transformative. It will shape, even define, the museum’s presentation of American art for generations to come.”

Barbara and her husband, James, began building a private collection in 1978 with the purchase of a self-portrait by contemporary painter Jerome Witkin, whom they had heard lecture at the Museum of Art at Penn State the prior spring. Working primarily with galleries in New York, the couple acquired works by noted American artists over the next two decades until Jim’s death in 2001. The Palmers began donating works of art to the Museum of Art at Penn State long before the official unveiling of the museum that bears their name in 1993. Barbara continued the practice after Jim’s death in 2001, donating significant paintings by early twentieth-century American artists George Luks, Arthur Dove, and Joseph Stella and an extensive group of drawings, maquettes, and major works by sculptor Seymour Lipton, among other gifts, in 2002 and 2005.

“Barbara and Jim Palmer’s extraordinary generosity lives on at Penn State,” said Barbara Korner, Dean of the College of Arts and Architecture. “This bequest both elevates the national reputation of the museum and greatly advances the mission of the College and the University as a cultural destination.”

In 2013, the museum published A Gift from the Heart: American Art from the Collection of James and Barbara Palmer in honor of the promised bequest. The expansive and fully illustrated book documents the Palmers’ collection of American art and its scholarly and historical significance.

A major exhibition celebrating the James and Barbara Palmer Collection will open at the museum in June of 2021. According to Erin Coe, “We plan to have this exhibition travel to additional venues, helping us spread the word about this outstanding collection and our remarkable benefactors.”

A selection of eleven works of art from the Palmer bequest are currently on view at the museum.

Highlights of the bequest include:

• Lake George, 1924, by Georgia O’Keeffe

• Frederic Edwin Church, Vermont Scenery, 1852, oil on canvas, 18 x 26 1/8 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer

• Martin Johnson Heade, The White Rose, c. 1874–80, oil on artist’s board, 11 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer

• Thomas Anshutz, A Challenge (Portrait of Rebecca H. Whelen), c. 1907, pastel on canvas, 30 x 24 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer

• Thomas Hart Benton, Shallow Creek, 1938–39, oil and egg tempera on canvas mounted to board, 36 x 25 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer. © 2019 T.H. and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts / UMB Bank Trustee / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY

• Romare Bearden, Untitled (Mother and Child), 1969, collage on board, 13 5/16 x 9 13/16 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer. © 2019 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY

• Jacob Lawrence, Confrontation at the Bridge, 1975, gouache on paper, 22 1/2 x 30 1/8 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer. © 2019 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Barbara Palmer was a founding member of the Palmer Museum of Art Advisory Board, and a 1986 gift from James and Barbara Palmer launched the campaign that led to the creation of the current museum on the University Park campus. A Baltimore native, Barbara Raeder met James Palmer at Iowa State University. She graduated in 1946, and the Palmers married in 1948. They moved to State College in 1953. James was the president and CEO of C-Cor Electronics and Centre Video—now Comcast—for 25 years, while Barbara served on the company’s board of directors.

Because of their involvement in the telecommunications industry, the Palmers created an endowed chair for Penn State’s program in the field. Over the years, they invested in programs as diverse as the Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, Penn State Public Broadcasting, and the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and their gifts to scholarships, particularly those created through the Renaissance Fund, have assisted hundreds of students. Palmer was a leader in every major University-wide fundraising effort, and she served as chair of the Women in Philanthropy committee during the “Grand Destiny” campaign.

Barbara Palmer was also a leader in the community. The first female president of the Centre County United Way, she supported numerous organizations, including the Girl Scouts, Mount Nittany Medical Center, the State Theatre and many others. This commitment to both Penn State and Centre County led to her recognition as the Renaissance Fund honoree of the year in 1984.