The mission of the Berkshire Museum is to enrich, inspire and educate through interactions with the arts, history and the natural world.

In 1903, Berkshire Museum founder, Zenas Crane, was inspired by such institutions as the American Museum for Natural Science, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He wanted to blend the best of these establishments in a new museum for the people of Western Massachusetts. Thanks in large part to Mr. Crane himself, the Berkshire Museum’s broad and varied collections include pieces from virtually every continent, a mixture of the whimsical and the exemplary, important fine art and sculpture, natural science specimens, and ancient artifacts.

As the third-generation owner of Crane & Co, a paper manufacturer that was (and is) the official supplier of paper to the U.S. Treasury, Mr. Crane invested his wealth in his community. He sought out art and artifacts for the Berkshire Museum, and encouraged collections that would bring home to the Berkshires a wide cross-section of the world’s wonders. The Berkshire Museum became a “window on the world.”