Cincinnati Ar t MuseumThe Cincinnati Art Museum and Academy stands on property surveyed by the Joseph Earnshaw Civil Engineering Company. In 1880, Charles West donated $150,000 to help build a home for a city art museum, under the condition that the community would match his gift. In 1882, the City of Cincinnati provided approximately twenty acres of land, located within Eden Park, as the site for the building. Architect James McLaughlin designed a Richardson Romanesque-styled structure. West eventually donated another $150,000 to the project. The new museum was dedicated in 1886 as the Art Palace of the West.Now, more than a century later, the Cincinnati Art Museum houses over 100,000 works of art, including Joseph Earnshaws wife Eleanors prized English candelabra, a collection of woven Indian baskets, and butterflies she donated to the museum in 1912.Above, clockwise: Museum, 1886; survey plat of museum, 1880; aerial view of the Museum 198927