The Norman Rockwell Museum

People of all ages can spend a fun day at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Children will enjoy the whimsical nature of Rockwell’s art, but adults will find meaning and messages in the everyday situations, objects, and people Rockwell depicted.

Many of the paintings that later became Saturday Evening Post covers are displayed on the main level, and you can easily discover details in the large paintings that people picking up the magazine years ago may have missed. The free docent talks held throughout the day provide a fascinating and worthwhile introduction. I highly recommend renting the audio tour as well. Rockwell used ordinary people, including his family, friends, and neighbors as models. Some narrate descriptions of the works they modeled for, providing insight into Rockwell’s process and personality as well as intriguing personal perspectives.

The main floor also has revolving exhibits, a wonderful gift shop, and a simple terrace café featuring sandwiches and salads brought in from the Red Lion Inn. In good weather, you can wonder around the lovely grounds, eventually happening upon Rockwell’s studio, moved here from its original location in downtown Stockbridge. The studio is set up just as he used it, with easels, paints, books and furnishings. A docent stationed there answers questions.

The lower level gallery houses all of Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post magazine covers. Examining the covers from the first in 1916 all the way through to the last in 1963, you can trace the growth of Rockwell as an artist affected by world and life events, love, and the people around him. If your arrival timing isn’t right for the document talk, you might begin your visit with the excellent video narrated by Rockwell’s son Peter shown in this gallery. The lower level also features an exhibit on Rockwell’s involvement with the Boy Scouts and Boy’s Life magazine that got him started, and some Boy Scout memorabilia.

I’ve often dismissed Rockwell’s illustrations as unfailingly “feel good” and idealistic, but touring the Norman Rockwell Museum proved me wrong. Although it is true that the Post required Rockwell to create illustrations depicting happy scenes during difficult times such as The Great Depression and WWII, he displays the emotional impact the Civil Rights Movement in some of his most powerful work. Four paintings illustrating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (freedom to worship, freedom of speech, freedom from want, and freedom from fear, displayed in a central dedicated area rate among my favorite Rockwell works. Rockwell’s “The Four Freedoms” later appeared on U.S. war bonds.