Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will open Frederic Church in Jamaica on Friday, October 30, at its home in the Carnegie Mansion at 2 East 91st Street on the Upper East Side. The exhibition brings together more than 60 sketches and oil studies the American landscape painter made during a five-month stay in Jamaica in 1865. It runs through Monday, February 15, 2027.

The show is timed to the 200th anniversary of Church's birth. He was born in 1826 and died in 1900. Cooper Hewitt holds more than 2,000 of his oil studies and graphite sketches, which the museum describes as the largest collection of Church works in the world, and many of the pieces going on view have rarely or never been shown to the public.

What is on view

Church traveled widely for his large landscape paintings, but the Jamaica trip had a different purpose. He and his wife, Isabel, sailed there in April 1865 after their two young children died of diphtheria. Over five months, he went out on foot and on horseback nearly every day, recording the island's terrain, its plants and the changing light and weather.

The works in the exhibition reflect that daily routine. Visitors will see quick graphite studies and longer oil sketches on paperboard, many with short handwritten notes from the artist. Titles among the works the museum has shared include Palm Trees, Tree with Vines, Blue Mountains near Kingston, Tree Fern, Thatch Palm, A Lizard, Rainforest, and Moonlight Bamboo and Figure Sketches, Kingston, all dated 1865.

The exhibition also places the drawings in the setting of Jamaica at the time, when Black Jamaicans lived under British colonial rule. It includes the voices of Jamaican figures Paul Bogle and George William Gordon, who took part in the political debates of the period. Alongside the sketches are reproductions of period photographs, some collected by Church and some from the National Library of Jamaica, and rare books from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

The exhibition is organized by Caitlin Condell, curator and head of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt, with collections assistant Mackenzie Jones. Image descriptions of the objects are available on the exhibition's accessibility page and in a Large Print Label booklet at the museum.

Programs tied to the show

Cooper Hewitt plans a series of public programs during the run. On Thursday, November 12, Victoria Johnson, author of the 2026 Church biography Glorious Country, will give an illustrated lecture placing Church in the wider world of his time. The museum also plans a hands-on drawing workshop with Alice Tangerini, the Smithsonian's botanical illustrator, focused on plants native to Jamaica. Dates and tickets for programs are posted on the museum's events calendar.

In 2027, the museum plans to launch an online platform with new high-resolution photography and research on its full collection of Church drawings, which cover nearly all of his travels, from the Catskills to Mexico.

Also at Cooper Hewitt this week

  • Thursday, October 29, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.: Design Across Time: A Conversation with the Curators. The curatorial team behind the museum's first-floor collection installation, which brings together more than 125 works of product and graphic design, fashion, textiles, digital design, wallcoverings and architecture, will talk about how it came together. Tickets are $20 for adults, $12 for educators, seniors, students and visitors with disabilities, and $10 for members.
  • Wednesday, November 4, 5 to 6 p.m.: At the Hearth, a drop-in program in the Carnegie Library during the museum's daily Pay What You Wish hour. This week's session looks at Helena Hernmarck's tapestry Carnegie's Dream with Susan Brown, Cooper Hewitt's associate curator of textiles, and weaver and writer Mae Colburn. The program is part of the museum's celebration of its 50th anniversary in the Carnegie Mansion.

Hours, tickets and getting there

The museum, shop and garden are open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the cafe is open daily until 5:30 p.m. As of this week, the museum lists reduced admission during an exhibition changeover, with some upper-floor galleries temporarily closed: $10 for adults, $5 for seniors 62 and older, students with ID and visitors with disabilities, and free for visitors 18 and under. Pay What You Wish runs from 5 to 6 p.m. every day. The garden will be closed from Thursday, November 5, through Saturday, November 7. Check the museum's hours and admission page before visiting, since prices may change once new galleries open.

Cooper Hewitt is at 2 East 91st Street, between Fifth and Madison avenues. Take the 4, 5 or 6 train to 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, or the 6 train to 96th Street and Lexington Avenue. The M1, M2, M3 and M4 buses stop on Fifth Avenue at 90th or 92nd Street going uptown and on Madison Avenue at 91st Street going downtown.

Frederic Church in Jamaica opens Friday, October 30, and tickets can be bought online or at the door.

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