THE BROOME COLLECTION
Log InThe Official Museum Archive of the William Henry Broome Collection
THE BROOME COLLECTION
Welcome
Every life leaves behind a story.
Some are written in books.
Some are remembered through photographs.
William Henry Broome left his story in brushstrokes.
Welcome to The Broome Collection, the Official Museum Archive dedicated to preserving the extraordinary life, artistic legacy, and enduring humanity of William Henry Broome.
This is more than an art museum.
It is the preservation of one man’s humanity; his triumphs and failures, his dreams and disappointments, his imagination and fears, his joy and sorrow all recorded not through words, but through paint.
Each canvas represents more than an artistic creation.
It is a moment in time.
A memory.
A question.
A confession.
A hope.
A struggle.
Individually, these paintings invite curiosity.
Together, they become something far more profound:
the human story of a life told one brushstroke at a time.
A Lifetime Preserved
William Henry Broome (September 26, 1966 – November 20, 2021) devoted much of his life to creating what would ultimately become a remarkable body of nearly seven hundred original paintings, drawings, and sketches—a visual autobiography expressed through creativity, imagination, and extraordinary emotional honesty.
He did not paint to become famous.
He painted because art became his language when words were no longer enough.
Throughout his writings, William Broome described painting not simply as a passion, but as the one constant that carried him through years of profound emotional struggle. His canvases became a place where he searched for understanding, identity, purpose, belonging, and peace. Long before his life ended, he had already begun telling his story through his artwork.
His works range from quiet landscapes and intimate portraits to deeply symbolic self-reflections that explore hope, loneliness, resilience, vulnerability, love, imagination, mortality, and the complexities of the human experience.
Seen together, these works become more than an art collection.
They become the visual diary of a man who chose to express with a brush what could never fully be expressed with words.
One of the Rarest Private Artist Archives
Because of its size, completeness, documented provenance, and singular focus on one artist’s lifelong creative journey, The Broome Collection represents one of the rarest intact private artistic archives assembled by a single American self-taught artist.
Unlike most private collections, which are assembled over time from many different artists, this Collection preserves the life’s work of one individual, allowing visitors to witness the evolution of a creative mind across decades.
In that respect, it shares an uncommon characteristic with history’s most celebrated artistic legacies, including the preserved notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the deeply personal works of Vincent van Gogh, the symbolic imagery of Frida Kahlo, and the visual journals of Edvard Munch.
While The Broome Collection occupies its own unique place in American art, it offers the same rare opportunity:
to experience an artist’s life as one continuous human narrative told through hundreds of original works.
IV
A Promise Nearly Lost
William Henry Broome died by suicide on November 20, 2021, bringing to a close a life marked by extraordinary artistic creativity and deeply personal struggles. Yet, in many ways, his final chapter became the beginning of another story; the remarkable preservation of nearly seven hundred original works that he hoped would one day be cared for and shared through a museum.
In his Last Will and Testament, William expressed one wish above all others: that his life’s work would be preserved and exhibited through a museum so future generations could experience the journey reflected in his paintings.
To help make that vision possible he directed the vast majority of his artwork, nearly his entire Collection together with one-half of his life insurance proceeds, be entrusted to an art museum institution. According to his estate documents, those funds were intended to assist in preserving and exhibiting the Collection as he envisioned.
In a separate and deeply personal gesture, he also gifted twelve paintings to a young woman who had once been his middle school student many years earlier, leaving her as the only other beneficiary of his artistic legacy.
What happened next became one of the most unexpected chapters in the Collection’s history.
Although the institution accepted the financial portion of the estate designated to it, it ultimately chose not to assume stewardship of the artwork and voluntarily relinquished its interest in the Collection. As a result, hundreds of original paintings, drawings, and sketches representing decades of William Broome’s life and artistic journey were left without the museum home he had hoped they would one day have.
For a time, it appeared that William Broome’s final wish might never be fulfilled.
Yet rather than allowing the Collection to be dispersed, forgotten, or treated simply as the remaining assets of an estate, the young woman entrusted with twelve paintings made a remarkable decision. She accepted the responsibility of preserving not only the works left to her, but the artist’s larger vision. Through legal stewardship, extraordinary generosity, and an unwavering commitment to honoring William Broome’s final wishes, the surviving Collection was ultimately reunited, preserved as a unified archive, professionally cataloged, and entrusted to those committed to protecting it for future generations.
Today, every gallery within The Broome Collection stands as the fulfillment of that promise.
More Than an Exhibition
The Broome Collection has not been assembled merely to display artwork.
It has been created to preserve a human story.
Every painting presented within these galleries has been carefully cataloged, professionally photographed, digitally archived, and preserved as part of an ongoing commitment to museum-quality stewardship, conservation, education, and historical preservation.
The approximately 150 works currently presented within this Museum Archive represent only a carefully curated portion of an archive containing nearly seven hundred surviving originals.
Together they form one continuous narrative, not arranged chronologically, but emotionally.
They reveal an artist who documented the complexities of the human experience with extraordinary honesty, remarkable imagination, and uncommon vulnerability.
An Invitation to Discover
The Broome Collection is not intended to tell visitors what to think.
Instead, it invites every guest to slow down, observe carefully, and discover the stories unfolding within each work.
Some paintings reveal themselves immediately.
Others ask you to linger.
Many will mean something entirely different to each person who stands before them.
Throughout the galleries you will encounter Curator’s Reflections, Looking Closer, and A Moment to Reflect.
These writings are offered not as definitive answers, but as thoughtful companions that provide historical context, artistic insight, and quiet moments of contemplation while preserving every visitor’s freedom to discover a personal interpretation of William Broome’s work.
Like the paintings themselves, they ask questions more often than they provide answers.
A Living Legacy
William Broome wrote in his Will:
“Painting and drawing were my lovers and life.
They were the only things that kept me wanting to live in this cold and uncaring world.”
He also wrote:
“The extremely brutal nature of my childhood resulted in a lifetime of obsessions and nightmares.
Within my artwork you will find my search for self and soul.
My very heart is within each brush stroke.”
Those words now serve as the guiding spirit of this Museum Archive.
The Broome Collection exists not simply to preserve paintings, but to preserve the remarkable story of the man who created them.
His work reminds us that behind every work of art is a human being whose struggles may not always be visible, whose hopes may never have been spoken aloud, and whose search for understanding continues to resonate long after the artist is gone.
His paintings are not simply viewed.
They are experienced.
As You Begin Your Journey
Every painting is a chapter.
Every image is a conversation.
Every brushstroke carries a memory.
Every collection tells the story of an artist.
The Broome Collection tells the story of a human being.
As you begin your journey through these galleries, we invite you to look beyond the canvas.
Look beyond the colors.
Look beyond the symbolism.
Look beyond what is immediately seen.
For within every brushstroke lies the enduring story of a life that refused to be forgotten.
Thank you for visiting The Broome Collection.
As you begin your journey through these galleries, may you find more than paintings. May you discover a life, a voice, and a story that continues to speak through every brushstroke.
William Henry Broome left us with one final wish:
“I pray my paintings and drawings will be taken care of and will live on.
I truly love them all. I want them to have the life I always dreamed of having.
It is my dying wish.”
Today, that wish has become this Museum Archive.
Every painting preserved.
Every story remembered.
Every brushstroke still speaking.
Welcome to The Broome Collection - where a life’s work, and the humanity behind it, will continue to live on for generations to come.
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