The Norman Rockwell Museum holds the most comprehensive collection of his original paintings, drawings, and sketches anywhere in the world — over 700 original works covering all periods of his career. Rockwell spent the last 25 years of his life in Stockbridge, and his original studio has been relocated to the museum campus, preserved exactly as he left it the day he died in 1978.
The studio is the highlight for many visitors: small, cluttered, practical. The notes and reference photographs pinned to the walls, the smell of oil paint absorbed into the wood, the exact chair where he sat to paint his Saturday Evening Post covers — it makes the work feel grounded in ordinary life rather than suspended in nostalgia. The museum's programming is thoughtful; temporary exhibitions regularly put Rockwell's work in dialogue with contemporary artists.