Rhode Island School of Design Museum

The museum in Providence was founded in 1877 in the same breath as the Rhode Island School of Design, and that pairing still shapes it: this is a collection assembled to be studied by artists and designers a few doors away. It runs from Egyptian and classical antiquities through Impressionism to contemporary craft and textiles.

Its most surprising resident is a nearly nine-foot gilded wooden Buddha, a 12th-century Japanese figure of Dainichi Nyorai, among the largest such sculptures outside Japan. Nearby hang a well-known Manet and paintings by Cézanne, kept as working models for the students next door.