National Museum of American Illustration
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| Established | 1998 |
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| Location | Newport, Rhode Island, USA |
| Coordinates | 41°28′11″N 71°18′25″W / 41.4696°N 71.3069°W |
| Type | Visual art |
| Director | Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler |
| Website | http://www.americanillustration.org/ |
The National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI), founded in 1998, is the first national museum to be devoted exclusively to American illustration artwork. The NMAI is located on Newport, Rhode Island's historic Bellevue Avenue in the mansion Vernon Court, designed by the noted Gilded Age architecture firm Carrère and Hastings. The museum's collection contains over 2,000 original works by noted American illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, J. C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth, and others.
The NMAI was founded in 1998 by husband and wife team Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler, with the National Arts Club as its founding institution. The museum opened its doors to the public on July 4, 2000 at the Carrère and Hastings designed Vernon Court estate in Newport, Rhode Island.
In addition to Vernon Court, the adjacent property on Bellevue Avenue, Stoneacre, is owned by the museum. The property is named for the demolished mansion designed by architect William Appleton Potter for John W. Ellis that once occupied the site. The grounds for the site were designed by the noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and following the purchase of the site by the NMAI founders, it has been restored as an arboretum in Olmsted’s honor.
The NMAI’s American Imagist Collection focuses on artwork from the 'Golden Age of American Illustration', a period whose heyday dates from 1865 to 1945, with the end of the original Saturday Evening Post marking its ultimate demise.
The NMAI features original art created by illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, J. C. Leyendecker, and Jessie Willcox Smith. The illustrators created images integral to American culture, ranging from the New Year’s Baby to Uncle Sam. For these reasons, the NMAI’s collection has been named the American Imagist Collection.
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