Since 1997, the Morris Museum has been designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, in recognition of the museum's "solid history of artistic excellence, substantial programming and broad public service." The museum is also recognized as a Qualified Organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust. Offering first-rate performances for the whole family, the Morris Museum’s Bickford Theatre is a distinguished member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and is affiliated with the Actors Equity Association.

For more than 90 years, the mission of the Morris Museum has been to elevate the cultural consciousness, stimulate the mind and enhance quality of life by advancing the understanding and enjoyment of the visual and performing arts, natural and physical sciences, and humanities. The museum is committed to organizing exhibitions, musical and theatrical performances and educational programs in a welcoming, inclusive and creative environment that responsibly uses all museum resources, including stewardship of a permanent collection.

From Small Beginnings
Objects collected for display at the Morristown Neighborhood House formed the beginnings of the Morris Museum collections, and education has been an intrinsic part of the museum’s program from its inception. Mrs. Aldus Pierson, the House’s first headworker, gave talks to children about various cultural expressions represented by this early collection of art and artifacts from a broad range of cultures throughout the world. Generous donors soon began giving Mrs. Pierson interesting objects they had acquired in their travels around the world.

By 1927, the collection filled seven rooms and encompassed the first floor of the Neighborhood House’s annex. From 1938 through 1956, the museum occupied space in the Maple Avenue School, enabling staff to enhance programs for children and to establish relationships with area schools. The museum was incorporated in 1943, and the outreach education program began in 1950 with a series of in-school presentations for Morris County students, including talks about American Indian culture.

In 1963, having outgrown its fourth location, the Morris Museum acquired “Twin Oaks,” the former Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen family estate. Mr. Frelinghuysen was a lawyer and banker and was the grandson of Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, the secretary of state under President Chester Arthur. Today, this architecturally significant Georgian-style mansion is the heart of the museum’s exhibition space. To support expanding activities and programs, successful capital campaigns have made it possible to add to the facility since then. In 1970, the gallery space was increased and a 312-seat theatre was added. In 1990, the museum complex was further expanded to the present 75,524 square feet.

Upon acquisition of the Guinness collection, the Morris Museum teamed up with international architecture firm RMJM Hillier of Princeton, New Jersey for construction of a new wing to house the collection. Built atop what had been a terrace at the center of the building, the new wing includes the 4,300-square-foot exhibition Musical Machines & Living Dolls, opening November 6; as well as viewable storage and a resource center, opening in 2008. The project also included the addition of 5,700 square feet of adjacent public and gallery space, a two-story Grand Entrance Pavilion with new Museum Shop and the restoration of the museum’s core structure, the historic 1913 mansion designed by the famed American firm McKim, Mead & White.

An Extraordinary Gift: The Murtogh D. Guinness Collection
In 2003, the Morris Museum was awarded the Murtogh D. Guinness collection of historic mechanical musical instruments and automata. The collection is one of the most significant of its kind and further places the Morris Museum in the forefront as a major cultural center. The exhibition Musical Machines & Living Dolls is the largest and most significant public exhibition of these types of objects in the Western hemisphere. A milestone in the history of music and technology, the mechanical musical devices encompass the first form of music on-demand, a precursor to today’s technology of recorded sound.

Awarded by The Lutece Foundation, which was established by the late Mr. Guinness to assure its conservation,, the collection was a lifelong passion for the late Mr. Guinness, who was from the famous Anglo-Irish brewing family. Mr. Guinness was an early leader of the Musical Box Society, International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the enjoyment, study and preservation of automatic musical instruments. The prestigious Murtogh D. Guinness collection is an extraordinary and diverse collection assembled over 50 years. The collection features nearly 700 rare, beautiful and intriguing mechanical musical instruments and automata dating from the late 16th to the early 20th century, as well as more than 5,000 programmed media (ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders). The musical boxes, mechanical organs, clocks, orchestrions and mechanically activated life-like figures reflect meticulous craftsmanship, innovative technology and dynamic sound.

A World-Class Permanent Collection
In addition to the Guinness collection, the Morris Museum boasts more than 48,000 items in its permanent collection, which is especially strong in the areas of fine art, decorative art, costumes/textiles, dolls and toys, natural sciences, geology/paleontology, and anthropology.

• Fine Arts: The fine arts collection is rooted in 19th and 20th century European and American painting and sculpture. Highlights include Pan of Rohallion, a bronze 1890 sculpture by the Gilded Age sculptor Frederick MacMonnies; an unusual night image by the 19th century French painter Jean Baptiste Corot; an idyllic Pastoral Landscape painted by the 18th century Welsh Romantic artist Richard Wilson; and works by American landscape painters who worked in New Jersey, including Andrew Melrose, Thomas Moran and Charles Warren Eaton. A growing collection of works by modern and contemporary artists include regional New Jersey artists, represented in the collection with sculptural works by Roy Crosse and Marion Held, prints and works on paper by artists including W. Carl Burger, Willie Cole, Mona Brody and Leon Golub and works by internationally renowned artists such as Sandro Chia, Elizabeth Murray and Gregory Amenoff.
  
  
• Decorative Arts: The decorative arts collection contains historic and contemporary ceramics, glass and silver, both handmade and manufactured in America and Europe. Major types and styles are represented, including early studio glass, children’s china and Tiffany silver. The glass collection has recently been enlarged by donations of studio glass works by various glass artists from the 1960s and 1970s, strengthening the museum’s stellar collection. This includes works by Dale Chihuly, Dan Daily and Antoine Leperlier. Recent donations of ceramic pieces by master New Jersey potter Albert Green are significant additions to the collection.
  
  
• Costumes and Textiles: The museum’s costume and textile collection includes both American and international examples. American textiles are represented by a selection of Amish quilts, coverlets and samplers with regional origins, and lace. International holdings include Kuba Velvets from Africa, Mexican and European weaving and embroidery, and woven silk panels from China. The Morris Museum’s extensive costume collection contains clothing and accessories dating as early as the mid- to late 1700s and as recently as the latest fashions designed by Pucci and House of Scaasi. Many pieces have historical significance, such as a striking gown worn to an inaugural ceremony for Abraham Lincoln, while still more are representative of styles significant to the history of fashion, highlighting, for example, the 1920s. While the majority of the costume collection reflects trends in American or European fashion, it also contains a number of international costumes from places such as Japan, China, and the Middle East.
  
  
• Dolls and Toys: This collection is comprised of 19th and 20th century childhood playthings such as mechanical and transportation toys; games; ride-on toys; children’s furniture; and European and American dolls from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Highlights include the Heizer Doll Collection, made between 1930 and 1960 by Chatham doll-maker Dorothy Heizer; a vast international doll collection established in 1943; European and American dolls represented by early examples of Peg-wooden dolls; 1850s German glazed china head dolls; and French fashion dolls.
  
  
• Natural Sciences: The natural sciences collection encompasses vertebrates – mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish; invertebrates – arthropods, sponges, echinoderms and mollusks; and a limited collection of botanical materials. The collection includes mounts and skeletons, mollusk shells, insects, specimens preserved in liquids and live specimens. Endangered and extinct species and non-regional fauna add important interpretive perspectives.
  
  
• Anthropology: The museum has an impressive collection of ethnographic and archaeology artifacts. Materials from the Plains and Northeast Woodland areas comprise the North American collection. Highlights include artifacts donated by the Captain William Philo Clark collection, with impressive examples of beadwork and a 1870s Sioux warrior’s fringed leather shirt ascribed to the distinguished Sioux leader, Crazy Horse.
  
  
• Geology/Paleontology: The museum’s geology and paleontology collection is its largest and is regarded as one of the best in New Jersey. The collection focuses largely on specimens from New Jersey with a 100 percent representation of New Jersey minerals including Franklin and Watchung Mountain materials and an outstanding micro mount collection. The rock collection is maintained primarily for educational purposes. The fossil collection includes objects from the local region, with e excellent examples of regional dinosaur tracks.