During her last years she slept on a cot with only her dog for a companion. More than 15,000 glass water pitchers hung from her barn’s ceiling, and every other imaginable place.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opens “Holidays on Display” Nov. 13. The exhibition examines the art, industry and history of commercial holiday displays that enchanted the public from the 1920s to the 1960s.

“Odd Wisconsin,” an exhibit featuring an exclusive collection of curious and authentic Wisconsin artifacts is open to the public at the Wisconsin Historical Museum on Madison’s Capitol Square.

Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853–54 voyage to Japan not only reestablished diplomatic and mercantile relations between that country and the West for the first time since the 17th century, but also opened the floodgates for cultural exchanges that would profoundly affect Western art.

RALEIGH, N.C.—The Carolinas Chapter of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA) recently donated a copy of the new 2009 Journal of Appraisal Studies to the North Carolina Art Museum Reference Library in Raleigh, N.C.

The restoration of the world’s largest Louis Comfort Tiffany art glass dome, located in Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, has been completed with awe-inspiring results.

Africa. The name conjures images of vast jungles and deserts, mystery and ancient cultures. It is the world’s second largest continent, the probable origin of humanity and is the oldest inhabited land on earth.

The Field Museum’s newest exhibition, The Aztec World, gives visitors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the otherworldly grandeur and sophistication of one of history’s great civilizations.

Close your eyes and imagine artifacts and collectibles from 60 sports Halls of Fames, sports governing bodies and other top athletic organizations collected in a single space — in the city that never sleeps. Open your eyes and you’ll see that you’ve imagined the newly-opened Sports Museum of America in New York City.

The landmark exhibition, Silversmiths to the Nation: Thomas Fletcher and Sidney Gardiner, 1808–1842, on view at Winterthur Museum & Country Estate from July 4 to September 21, is