The Danforth Museum Corporation was established on August 9, 1973, as a 501 non-profit institution by a local group of community activists, educators, and art lovers.

In February 2013, the Museum purchased the Jonathan Maynard Building on Framingham's Centre Common, anticipating future renovation, as the institution's facilities on Union Avenue were increasingly outdated.

The Framingham State University Foundation assumed the care and ownership of the Museum's permanent collection.

In early 2017, the Museum offices and school reopened in the Maynard building; its collection was placed into storage for safekeeping, and select exhibitions were moved off-site.

The museum's permanent collection focuses on American Art from the 19th-century to the present,[1] and includes work by Gilbert Stuart, Charles Sprague Pearce, Eastman Johnson, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Hart Benton, as well as work by the Boston Expressionists and contemporary artists such as Faith Ringgold, Richard Yarde, Barbara Grad, Andrew Stevovich, and Jason Berger.