The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened in 1877 and is home to more than 225,000 pieces of art that span the works of the Western world since the first century A.D. and those of Asia since the third millennium B.C. The European pieces date from the Medieval era to the present, and the collection of arms and armor is the second largest in the United States. The American collections are among the best in the country, as are the expanding collections of modern and contemporary art. In addition, the museum houses encyclopedic holdings of costumes and textiles as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. There are several outstanding permanent exhibitions, including the earliest surviving portraits of an African-American couple, Hiram and Elizabeth Brown Montier, which provide a first-person perspective of their lives in 19th-century Philadelphia. Other highlights include an exhibit dedicated to the work of painter Ellsworth Kelly and several sets of rare armor dating from 16th-century Germany. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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