The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an unconventional museum in Boston serving as both an art and history museum and as a time capsule of its founder’s personality. The museum and its contents were originally the home and private collection of Isabella Stewart Gardner who wanted the collection to be left as she had organized it. To this day the museum has stayed true to that and left basically every piece of art exactly where it was positioned at the time of Isabella’s death. The museum’s dedication to this is best reflected by the fact that when a number of paintings were stolen in 1990, the empty frames were left on the wall and remain there to this day. I wanted to see if this unique style was reflected in the museum’s website.

While the overall design of the site was fairly typical, there were several elements which definitely stood out. Right on the homepage, one of the main categories to view is “About Isabella & Her Museum.” It’s common for museums dedicated to collecting and displaying the works of a particular artist to have a biography of that artist displayed prominently but I haven’t seen another museum draw that much attention to its founder. The website also draws a surprising amount of attention to the theft that occurred at the museum. While I’m sure this is partially motivated by wanting to recover the pieces, it’s also clearly presented as an exciting part of the museum’s history. The page describing the theft offers to let visitors “retrace the steps of the thieves” either digitally or even physically when the museum is opened. Finally, on the admissions page of the website, the museum prominently displays that free admission is offered to several groups including members, US military, and “All Named ‘Isabella’!”

The website and museum seem to be well adjusted to the pandemic. One of the three main links on the landing page is to “Gardner at Home.” This offers digital versions of a number of the museum’s works as well as more curated resources such as virtual tours, lectures, and other performances. One of these is the Luminary Lens program which brings local artists to perform at the museum with the intention of “bringing fresh perspectives to the Gardner Museum’s historic collection.” Overall I think the museum has done a great job of not only making its works available online but of finding ways to make them accessible to as many people as possible.