[1][2] When the Timken Museum opened in 1965, the Putnam Foundation Collection provided its initial material and Walter Ames became its first director.

Some cities have built large museums, and then hoped that innumerable works of art of true excellence would miraculously appear.

"[1]The museum displays European old master paintings, sculptures, and tapestries under natural light.

Acquisitions have expanded the collection from the original 40 to 60 major works,[1][2] including ones by American (Copley, Johnson, West, Cole, Bierstadt), Italian (Veronese, Guercino, and Savoldo's The Temptation of Saint Anthony), Spanish (Murillo), and French masters (Clouet, Claude, Boucher, Fragonard, David, Corot), as well as works of the Flemish and Dutch schools, including masterpieces by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Frans Hals.

In 2015, in honor of the museum's 50th anniversary, the Timken acquired a Zurbarán 3/4 portrait of St. Francis in meditation.