Butler Institute of American Art

The Butler Institute of American Art is a genuine gem of American museumship, and the fact that it sits in Youngstown rather than New York or Washington makes it all the more surprising. The collection covers American painting from the colonial period to the present, with particularly strong holdings in 19th-century landscape painting, the Ashcan School, and 20th-century realism. Winslow Homer's "Snap the Whip" is the most famous single work.

The building is beautiful — a neoclassical structure with an airy central gallery lit by skylights. Admission has always been free, which reflects Butler's original intention that the museum should serve the working people of Youngstown. It remains one of the best free art museums in the country.

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A story
Joseph Butler Jr. founded the museum in 1919 as the country's first institution dedicated exclusively to American art. He was a Youngstown businessman who had spent time in New York and Europe and came back convinced that American painting deserved a museum of its own. He hired McKim, Mead and White to design the building — the same firm that designed Penn Station and the Boston Public Library — and endowed it with a collection that has grown steadily ever since.