Audioguida Museum Art Gallery

Our museum art collection contains a number of original artworks. The most prominent works in our collection are a series of paintings done by Brandywine School artists on the topic of World War I.

In 1918, Frank Schoonover was commissioned as one of 13 studio artists to bring the scenes of World War I to the readership of The Ladies Home Journal through a series called “Souvenir Pictures of the Great War.” He painted fifteen of the total 36 pictures published. Others were painted by Gayle Hoskins. 

In the late nineteen-fifties, then Adjutant General for Delaware, Major General Joseph J. Scannell, acquired a series of paintings by Brandywine School artists, that had been painted as illustrations for the Lady's  Home Journal, during World War One. Scannell had a great love for books and art. He assembled an expansive library of military history on behalf of the Delaware National Guard which remains a key component of the Delaware Military Museum today.

In 1958 Scannell purchased eight paintings from the widow of Gayle Hoskins for $2500. A year later he acquired nine paintings by Frank Schoonover for $2700. These are now the property of the Delaware National Guard in the custody of the Delaware Military Heritage and Education Foundation which financed their cleaning and restoration. Currently, these paintings are on loan to the Delaware Archives for a special exhibition. 

The Delaware Military Heritage and Education Foundation also undertook the cleaning and restoration of several works of military-related art by Jamie Wyeth, another Brandywine school artist of more recent vintage.

Another collection is a series of paintings of warships connected to the state of Delaware. These include the Kalmar Nyckel, which brought the Swedish colonists to America, seven versions of the USS Delaware, and a painting of the USS Wilmington by Ken Wiggins.