Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery

The Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery houses one of the most important collections of religious art in America. Paintings of European sacred art from the 14th through the 19th centuries beautifully trace the religious, artistic, and cultural history of Western Europe. Included are important works of many major artists such as Rubens, Tintoretto, Veronese, Cranach, Gerard David, Murillo, Ribera, van Dyck, Honthorst, and Doré.

In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bowen began compiling information and artifacts from Bible times for a museum that would “make the Bible come alive.” The Bowens collected objects, plants, and models, and eventually their collection included artifacts from Babylon, Egypt, Palestine, and Rome. The Egyptian objects were discovered and donated by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the world-famous English archaeologist. Many of Petrie’s other important discoveries are on view at the Petrie Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

M&G’s collection of icons presents the history of icon painting from the 14th through the 20th centuries. Various icons represent the Novgorod School, the Suzdal and Moscow Schools (including the followers of Rublev), and the work of the Stroganov family. Some of the icons exhibit the influence of western culture on Russian art. A few of the works come from Greece.

In 1963, the Museum & Gallery acquired seven canvases from Benjamin West’s large series, The Progress of Revealed Religion. Originally, King George III of England had commissioned West to paint this series for the king’s proposed private chapel in Windsor Castle. However, because of the king’s illness and eventual madness, the chapel was never built, the entire series was never completed, and the paintings were never hung at Windsor. After West’s death, the completed part of the series was separated. Seven of the paintings fell into private hands where they remained until 1963 when the Museum & Gallery acquired them.

The Founder: Dr. Bob Jones Jr.
Expansions to the Museum

In thirty years, a small collection of paintings grew into one of the world’s largest and most important university art collections. However, the Gallery’s phenomenal development surprises no one who has ever witnessed God’s miraculous power and blessing. Now, fifty years after its inauguration, the collection comprises over 400 paintings by the Old Masters, nearly 200 pieces of Gothic to nineteenth-century furniture, approximately 100 works of sculpture, some 60 textiles, nearly 50 drawings and prints, over 1,000 ancient Biblical artifacts, and approximately 130 miscellaneous items that range from stained glass windows to a Byzantine baptistery.