Chrysler Museum of Art
art museum in Norfolk, Virginia
The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (whose wife, Jean Outland Chrysler, was a native of Norfolk) donated most of his extensive collection to the museum. This single gift significantly expanded the museum's collection, making it one of the major art museums in the Southeastern United States. The museum has a collection of more than 35,000 objects, including one the largest glass collections in America. Its holdings range from media including paintings, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts. The Museum's campus also features the Perry Glass Studio, a full-service restaurant, a gift shop, Kaufman Theater, and the Goode Works on Paper Center, and it oversees the historic Myers House.
History
The Chrysler Museum of Art opened in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. It was later renamed in honor of Walter P. Chrysler Jr.
“Chrysler Museum of Art” enters the record as art museum in Norfolk, Virginia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chrysler, Museum and museum can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Chrysler Museum of Art” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Chrysler, Museum and museum provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5114675. VIAF identifies the subject as 121789148. The Library of Congress control number is n80147453. Authority coordinates are 36.857, -76.292. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933 and 1971.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Chrysler Museum of Art”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Chrysler Museum of Art primary sources, Chrysler Museum of Art archive and Chrysler research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Chrysler Museum of Art” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.