Vernon Court, which is now the home of the National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI) was built in 1898, and has been recognized as one of the ten greatest mansions in America.  It has been compared to such structures as the White House, the Breakers and the Biltmore.  The National Museum of American Illustration was founded in 1998 by Judy Coffman Cutler and Laurence S. Cutler in order to display their art collection from the “Golden Age of American Illustration.”  This museum opened its doors to the public on July 4, 2000.

The NMAI’s summer season hours will start on May 24th and are Thursday-Sunday 11am-5pm, with guided tours Friday at 3pm.  Until then they are only open 11am-5pm on Fridays.  Tickets are $18.

On the summer season’s opening day, the NMAI will be debuting a new exhibition called “The American Muse,” which will be on display until the fall.  This collection pays respect to women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the artists who accurately portrayed their beauty and character.  Some illustrators that will be featured are Harrison Fisher, Philip Boileau, Henry Hutt and Paul Stahr, among others.  These illustrators created icons of American women of their day, which were featured in artist books and magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan.

In addition to this new exhibit, the NMAI will continue to showcase other exhibits: Maxfield Parrish: The Retrospective, Howard Pyle and his Brandywine Students and highlight’s from the museum’s American Imagist collection.