Founded in 1881 by fourteen of New York City’s first “environmental activists”, the Staten Island Museum houses artifacts and specimens from ancient to contemporary periods.

Based upon a 19th-century model, the art collection includes works spanning prehistory to the modern period, with representations of diverse world cultures from both the Western and Non-Western traditions.

William T. Davis, along with Nathaniel Lord Britton, Arthur Hollick,[1] Charles W. Leng, are some of the founding fathers who also contributed significantly to the city's nature preserve,[2] research and education.

It is the mission of the Staten Island Museum to spark curiosity and generate meaningful shared experiences through natural science, art, and history to deepen understanding of our environment, ourselves, and each other.

Examples of traditional representational art in the Staten Island Museum's permanent collection include prints by Rembrandt, Goya, Piranesi and Audubon, paintings by Cropsey, Moran, Alma-Tadema, Giovanni di Paolo and Pordenone, sculpture by Hiram Powers and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

The Modern Art collection includes works by John Sloane, Guy Pene du Bois, George Bellows, Chagall, Leger, Maillol, Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, Isabel Bishop, Peter Max, Donald Judd and the folk artist Clementine Hunter.

The museum, on the Snug Harbor Campus, is the first federal historic landmark on Staten Island designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, including geo-thermal heating and cooling.