Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati

The Taft Museum of Art is a celebrated fine art institution housed in a 200-year-old mansion on Pike Street in downtown Cincinnati-the oldest surviving domestic wooden structure in the city’s core. Built around 1820, this Federal-style home has played host to some of Cincinnati’s most prominent citizens, including Martin Baum, Nicholas Longworth, and David Sinton, as well as Anna Sinton Taft and Charles Phelps Taft, the half-brother of U.S. President William Howard Taft. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a key part of the Lytle Park Historic District.

A highlight of the house is the set of eight large-scale landscape murals painted directly onto its plaster walls by Robert S. Duncanson between 1851 and 1852. Commissioned by art patron Nicholas Longworth, these murals are considered the most important pre–Civil War domestic murals in the United States. They are also a significant testament to Duncanson’s legacy as the first African American landscape painter to gain international recognition.

The mansion gained further historical significance when William H. Taft accepted the presidential nomination from its front portico in 1908. In 1927, Anna Sinton Taft and Charles Phelps Taft gifted their home and extensive art collection to the people of Cincinnati. They aimed to make their collection-ranging from paintings and porcelains to sculptures and furniture-accessible to the public. The Taft Museum of Art officially opened on November 29, 1932.

The museum's collection features a rich array of European old master paintings, with works by artists such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and J. M. W. Turner. It also includes 19th-century American art, Chinese porcelains, European decorative arts, Limoges enamels, timepieces, and fine furniture.

Following a major renovation and expansion, the museum reopened in May 2004 with enhanced facilities, including a museum shop, the Carl H. Lindner Family Café, and Luther Hall-a dedicated space for lectures and performances. Today, the Taft Museum of Art stands as a cultural treasure blending fine art, rich history, and civic legacy in the heart of Cincinnati.