Joslyn Art Museum opened to the public in 1931 as the Society of Liberal Arts. Since that time, the Museum’s collection has grown to include over 11,000 works representing artists and cultures from antiquity to the present.

Joslyn Art Museum is internationally recognized for its collection of artists and explorers of the American West, including major holdings by Alfred Jacob Miller and nearly 400 watercolors and drawings by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who journeyed up the Missouri River between 1832–34 to portray the landscapes of the high plains and its native inhabitants.