Museums

Peabody Museum houses an impressive collection documenting the material culture of science from the early modern period to today. Eighteenth-century highlights include European and American microscopes, telescopes, electrical machines and demonstration apparatus.

The collections of the YCBA, a public art museum and research institute for the study of British art and culture,  are particularly strong in the 18th century, including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, rare books, and manuscripts.   The YCBA’s Reference Library, Prints & Drawings Study Room, and Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, all provide direct research assistance to students and scholars.  

The Yale Collection of Musical Instruments acquires, preserves, and exhibits musical instruments from antiquity to the present, including numerous European and American examples from the 18th century. Instruments are featured in demonstration and live performance throughout the academic year.   

The Yale University Art Gallery is particularly rich in 18th-century prints by the great Italian triumvirate, Tiepolo, Canaletto, and Piranesi, as well as French etchings and complex color prints, and works by the protean genius Goya. Choice paintings and sculpture include works by Trevisani, Pannini, Tiepolo, Bellotto, and Houdon.