The Pringle Plan: Slater Memorial Museum Tour

Slater Memorial Museum. Norwich, Connecticut.

On a recent field trip to the Slater Memorial Museum, with a group from Adventures in Lifelong Learning, I enjoyed a tour of a museum I have visited many times. Located on the campus of Norwich Free Academy, many locals don't realize the museum is open to the public. It is a wonderful resource for the school, but not at all limited to the students. Free parking is available on campus, as well as on local streets. For a small fee, anyone can view famous works of art from around the world!

Philanthropist and Slater Memorial Museum founder William Albert Slater

John Fox Slater, father of William Albert Slater

The Slater Museum was built and donated to the Norwich Free Academy by William Albert Slater in memory of his father, John Fox Slater. William was a world traveler who believed in using his wealth to expose students and the community to the cultures and aesthetics he learned about in his travels. Over the years, the museum’s holdings have grown to include five continents worth of fine and decorative art, historical artifacts and ethnographic material spanning 35 centuries. Of particular importance are the plaster casts of ancient Greek and Roman statues. No longer allowed, plaster casting of ancient treasures was once permitted as a way to provide wider access to these ancient cultures.

When visiting the museum, remember that photos are permitted in the galleries, just avoid use of flash when taking photos of paintings. Here is a sampling of the types of works you will see.

Tomb of Lorenzo De Medici, Duke of Urbino (Plaster casts, Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT)

King Arthur (plaster cast - Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT)

Pieta (Plaster cast - Slater Memorial Museum. Original is in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, by Michelangelo)

The Nike (Victory) of Samothrace (plaster cast - Slater Memorial Museum. Original in the Louvre circa 250-150 BCE) Viewed from gallery above.

The Nike (Victory) of Samothrace (plaster cast - Slater Memorial Museum. Original in the Louvre circa 250-150 BCE)

Moses (plaster cast - Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT. (Original in Church of San Pietro, Vincoli, Rome. Michelangelo, 16th century)

Scale model of Western Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

Plaster casts of Figures from the Western Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia - Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT (Originals in the Olympia Museum, Greece. Marble. ca 465-457 BCE)

Sophocles - Plaster cast, Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT (Original - a Roman copy of Greek bronze, marble is in the Vatican Museum, Rome. ca.340 BCE)

He Otricoli Zeus - Plaster cast. Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT. (Original is a Roman copy of a Greek original in the Vatican Museum, Rome. Marble. 4th century BCE)

Amenhotep III, The Magnificent - Plaster Cast. Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT. (Original is from an Egyptian mortuary temple at Thebes (Luxor, Egypt), now in the British Museum, London. ca. 1350 BCE)

Items behind glass tend to come out blurry due to reflections, but I still thought it was worth showing a few items from the Egyptian collection.

Reproduction of a Scene from the Book of the Dead, Hunefer. Polychrome, papyrus. Egypt, c. 1290 BCE.

Next up, the African collection.

These are both easy-to-carry stools. African. Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT.

Ceremonial masks. African. Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT.

On the day I was there, the changing exhibition area was filled with works by and about Norwich native Ellis W. Ruley. Ruley's preferred medium? - Oil-based house paint! The exhibit is on view September 23, 2018 – December 7, 2018.