Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
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| Established | 1923 |
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| Location | 565 N. Fifth Avenue Laurel, Mississippi |
| Coordinates | 31°41′47″N 89°07′51″W / 31.696348°N 89.130763°WCoordinates: 31°41′47″N 89°07′51″W / 31.696348°N 89.130763°W |
| Type | Art museum |
| Website | lrma.org |
The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is located in Laurel, Mississippi. It was founded in 1923 in memory of Lauren Eastman Rogers. The building's architect was Rathbone E. DeBuys of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The museum has an extensive collection of American Indian baskets. It also has a selection of American art by Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, and John Singer Sargent. It receives 32,000 visitors a year.
The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art was opened in 1923 as a memorial to Lauren Eastman Rogers, the only son and only grandson of two of the town's founding families. Lauren died at the age of 23 in 1921 from complications of appendicitis, soon after being married. After his death, Lauren's father, Wallace Brown Rogers, and his maternal grandfather, Lauren Chase Eastman, created the Eastman Memorial Foundation "to promote the public welfare by founding, endowing and having maintained a public library, museum, art gallery and educational institution, within the state of Mississippi."
The Eastman, Gardiner and Rogers families had migrated to Laurel from Clinton, Iowa, in the 1890s for timber resources. Their influence on the town touched all aspects of the residents' lives: economic, social, educational and aesthetic. Lauren Rogers was expected as an adult to take on an equally important leadership role in the community. His family believed he would contribute to the general well-being of the community. Deeply grieved by his untimely death, Lauren's family to commemorate him with a project to benefit the community. They developed and endowed the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. It is located on the site where Lauren had started building a house for his new bride, Lelia.
The building's architect was Rathbone E. DeBuys of New Orleans, Louisiana. The interior was designed by the Chicago firm of Watson and Walton. The walls are paneled in quarter-sawn golden oak, accented by hand-wrought ironwork by Samuel Yellin, and a ceiling of hand-molded plaster. Cork floors were installed throughout the museum.
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