Art of the Ancient Americas Collection

Encompassing almost three millennia, the Art of the Ancient Americas Collection comprises art objects created by dozens of indigenous nations from North, Central, and South America. These artistic expressions paint a story of the daily lives, human ingenuity, spiritual concerns, and socio-political histories of diverse societies that thrived long before the late 15th-century arrival of the Europeans.

Within the Collection, you may travel through time and place to experience works by master artists of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, the Classic Maya Kingdoms, the Inka (Inca) Empire, and the Peruvian desert civilizations of the Nasca and Moche. These artists represented their worlds in expertly hand-formed ceramics, inlaid wooden boxes, carved jade and limestone, and intricate gold, silver, copper, and shell ornaments.

The Art of the Ancient Americas Collection began with gifts by collectors Howard Campbell in 1972 and Howard Phillips in 1980, which became the Collection's core. It has grown incrementally through the past four decades with numerous individual contributions and support groups. From 1997-2023, significant donations from Mr. and Mrs. John B. Chandler, James F. Tuner, Mr. and Mrs. James H. Strack,  Norma Canelas and William D. Roth, Seymour Rosenberg, Dr. and Mrs. Glen E. Murphy, Mr. and Mrs. Paul McNear, George and Pearl Edelson, Friends of Art of the Ancient Americas, Dr. and Mrs. Solomon D. Klotz, Colin Lawton Johnson, and Dr. and Mrs. Luis Cabal have added to the Collection's importance and made it one of the most significant Ancient Americas collections in the Southeastern United States.