Peabody Essex Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum began in 1799, when the charter of the East India Marine Society called for the establishment of a "cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” and members of the Society began bringing home objects from Asia, Africa, Oceania, India, the northwest coast of America, and elsewhere. 

Today's collection includes 1.8 million works from cultures around the world: paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, textiles, architecture and decorative objects, dating from the 1700s to the present.

Considerable architectural interest is found in the National Historic Landmark East India Marine Hall (1825); the Moshe Safdie-designed glass and brick building expansion; and Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese (Qing Dynasty) sixteen-bedroom house, reconstructed on the Peabody Essex Museum site. 

Please check the museum website for updated exhibition information. Scheduling may have been modified as a result of the temporary museum closure.