The gallery, or museum, was expanded to two connected buildings holding 240 works of art, and remains open, free-of-charge, to the public.

At this time he made a shrewd investment in a horseshoe nail manufacturing company, which supported Merrick and his museum for the rest of his life.

His collection of 18th- and 19th-century French, German, English, and American paintings fills the gallery and includes romantic, realistic, and impressionistic art by the artists Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Gustave Courbet, Hermann Winterhalter, Thomas Sully, and Charles Courtney Curran.

The Hudson River School collection includes paintings by Asher Brown Durand, Thomas Moran, John Frederick Kensett, John William Casilear, and William Trost Richards.

Other collections include modern and contemporary art, a 19th-century library[4] and items from the New Brighton Historical Society.