An American Collection

Babette and Charles Wampold (1925–2010) were collectors of American art for most of their adult lives. Charles, and now Babette, supported the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, their hometown museum, for almost as many years. This exhibition highlights the collectors and the twenty-seven works they have either given to the Museum since 1982 or that are promised gifts of Babette to the Museum’s collection. An American Collection contains works by three members of the group known as “The Eight,”—Everett Shinn, William Glackens, and Ernest Lawson—as well as later twentieth-century examples by John Heliker, William Gropper, and Philip Evergood.

The Wampolds were not only perceptive collectors, but also steadfast patrons of the Museum and the Montgomery community. We are delighted to celebrate their contributions through this exhibition of over thirty years of gifts to the MMFA.