The Peabody Essex Museum is America’s oldest continuously operating museum.
It was founded in 1799, sixteen years after the establishment of the nation and nearly three-quarters of a century before the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The museum’s founders were among America's first global entrepreneurs, traveling the world in search of trade. The collections they amassed are exceptional for their provenance, age, quality, and significance. The Peabody Essex Museum’s collections (many ranking among the finest of their kind) exceed 2.4 million works of art and culture. Peabody Essex collections also encompass twenty-four historic buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, five National Register buildings, and our most recent architecture acquisition, Yin Yu Tang, the only complete Qing Dynasty house located outside China.