Bruce Museum

This past weekend I traveled to the Bruce Museum in Greenwich. I again traveled alone. The ride up there wasn't to bad and traffic wasn't bad at all either. It took me an hour to get up there. 



The museum is and institution that has exhibits of art, science and natural history.

 

The original museum was built as a private home in 1853. Robert Moffat Bruce, a wealthy textile merchant and a member of the New York cotton Exchange, bought the house and property in 1858 and deeded them to the Town on Greenwich in 1908. In the deed he stipulated that the property be used as a natural history, historical and art museum for the benefit of the public. The first exhibition of the Bruce Museum took place in 1912 and it had art form local artists known as the Greenwich Society of Artists.

 

Over the years and because of the generosity of its community the museum has built a collection of more than 15,000 objects representing the arts and sciences.

 

During my visit, unfortunately they had the art exhibits closed because they were changing the exhibits. The only thing that was open was the science part of the museum.

Persephone, 1987
Mary Frank (American, Born London 1923)
Bronze, 27 x 73 x 40 inches

 In the entrance of the museum they have two awesome sculptures that caught my attention. This is Persephone the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter. The legend says that Hades saw her and fell in love with her and because of that he stole her and took her to the underworld.

Dans la nuit, 1935
Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935)
Bronze

This sculpture was the first thing that caught my eye when  I first arrived that the museum. The couple embracing each other is beautiful. This is called Dans la nuit, meaning In the night.



 

This is a dwelling that represents the large population of Indians that lived here. The tribe called the Siwanoy people that belonged to a larger group of Indians known as the Munsee-speaking Lanape. The Siwanoys most likely lived a at Greenwich point but moved inland during the coldest months of the season. They depended on fishing, farming, hunting and foraging. The model above is what it might have looked like 800 years ago. 

 

 

Some thing interesting that I learned on my visit was that the Native Americas were the one that invented lacrosse which it's still played today.

 

My visit to the museum was interesting learning about the life of the Native Americans that lived in Connecticut (which its an Indian word) hundreds of years ago. This coming weekend I will be traveling to New York with my family to visit The Met, which I'm really excited about.