The Journal of the Walters Art Museum, the oldest continuously published scholarly art museum journal in the United States, seeks to disseminate knowledge about the museum’s history and its collections. The first volume “of what the Trustees hope will be a continuing series of publications devoted to scholarly discussions of objects in the Walters Art Gallery,” appeared in 1938, only four years after the museum opened as a public institution. Its preface noted that Henry Walters had “left to scholars the task and the adventure of seeking out the full significance of these things, so that the public may benefit by the knowledge and enjoyment of its heritage. The studies published here are intended to contribute to this purpose.” Over the next eighty years, the Journal continued to publish research on or related to the Walters’ collections, written by distinguished scholars on staff and from around the world, in 73 individual volumes, comprising more than 6,600 pages.
The Journal, is now available to all readers as an open-access digital publication; previous issues are in the process of being uploaded as pdfs, and continue to be available through JSTOR.
