Allen Memorial Art Museum

Oberlin College in Ohio has, for its size, one of the finest art museums of any college in America. The Allen Memorial opened in 1917 in a building by Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Woolworth Building in New York, a small Italian Renaissance-style palazzo on a rural campus. The collection was built patiently over a century into a real survey, from old masters to modern art.

There is one Oberlin tradition worth knowing. Through the museum's art-rental program, students can borrow an original work, a print or even a small painting, hang it in their dorm room for a semester for a few dollars, and live with real art up close.

The galleries run from European and Asian painting to a strong holding of modern and contemporary work, an unusual depth to find on a small liberal-arts campus in the middle of Ohio farmland.