The Gibbes Museum of Art was built in 1905. With collections dating the 18th to the 20th century, it serves as a wide representation of Charleston?s cultural leadership over the years.

James Shoolbred Gibbes was a local businessman who had a lifelong love for the arts. In his will, he appointed his trustees, Charles H. Simonton and the Charleston Mayor J. Adger Smyth, to lead the erection of a suitable building using the $100,000 that he left in a trust. This building will primarily function ?as a Hall or Halls for the exhibition of paintings? in Charleston.

Today, the aspirations of Gibbes have resulted to the Gibbes Museum of Art, which had just celebrated its first centenary in 2005. Its collections include not just paintings, but different art pieces like prints, drawings, photographs, miniature portraits, sculpture, and other master pieces that highlight the historical and cultural timeline of Charleston.