Collections

In 1927, Seattle entrepreneur Horace C. Henry founded the Henry Art Gallery, Washington State’s first art museum, to feature art of the present time. From its earliest days, the Henry has been committed to showcasing world-renowned contemporary artists and championing emerging talent. Today, we serve the region as the principal museum devoted to advancing contemporary art and ideas. To learn more about the history of the museum, please visit the Henry history page.

The Henry’s growing permanent collection contains close to 30,000 objects from around the world in a broad range of media including photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, ceramics, costumes, and textiles. The collection originated with the gift of nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings donated to the University of Washington by Horace C. Henry in 1926. It has grown over the years through acquisitions from exhibitions and through the generosity of art collectors, artists, and donors.

Growth in the collection from the 1950s through the 1970s was heavily influenced by arts faculty at the University of Washington, acquisitions from exhibitions, and works by Northwest Designer Craftsmen.

Due to our West Coast location, the influence of Japanese aesthetic in the Northwest is reflected in the collection of Japanese prints, textile design, and folk ceramics collected by Robert Sperry, Frances and Thomas Blakemore and Elizabeth Bayley Willis in the 1960s, the latter whom introduced mingei to the United States in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Our holdings of West Coast ceramics grew with the strong ceramic program at the UW and gifts from Joseph and Elaine Monsen reflecting the attitude and humor of ceramic artists of the 1970s. The Zoe Dusanne Memorial Collection, named for an early Seattle gallery owner, is a tribute to her role in bringing art to the Northwest.

Collections of particular note are the Albert Feldmann Collection of European Master Prints, the Joseph and Elaine Monsen Collection of Photography, the Stimson-Bullitt Collection of nineteenth-century prints, the Bill and Ruth True Collection of Contemporary Art, and the Washington Arts Consortium Collection of American Photographs, 1970–1980.

Works from the collection may be viewed by appointment in the Eleanor Henry Reed Collection Study Center. The Study Center and the museum’s location on the University of Washington campus make the Henry a key cultural resource and training ground in the visual arts. As an organization that is artist-focused and community-engaged, we are committed to providing access to our collections to connect visitors with the transformative power of art.

We continue to work with generous donors locally, nationally, and internationally in our efforts to reach greater equity in our collecting practices. We are currently prioritizing works by BIPOC identifying artists, particularly Black, Latinx, and Native American artists, and are also focusing on increasing the number of works in our holdings by female and LGBTQ+ artists. Additionally, we aim to further support our exhibiting artists by acquiring examples of their work for our permanent collection. We look forward to sharing them with our visitors!

The Reed Collection Study Center makes our permanent collection accessible to scholars, educators, students, artists, and the community. Named in honor of Eleanor Henry Reed, Horace Henry’s granddaughter, and her husband William G. Reed, the Study Center also offers access to object and artist files and a reference library of more than 5,000 volumes.