Charting the growth of the MIA's collection

Total Collection: 88,738 pieces
African Art: 1,407
Art from the Americas: 3,610
Oceanian Art: 145
Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian Art: 8,321
Japanese and Korean Art: 5,660
Decorative Art, Textiles and Sculpture: 17,521
Paintings: 1,060
Photography and New Media: 12,296
Prints and Drawings: 38,718

When the MIA opened in January 1915, it owned only 327 works of art, including 15 paintings and three African objects. In the past century, that collection has grown to 88,738 objects from every continent.

This interactive chart provides a year-by-year look at the number of objects added to the collection. By clicking on the colored headings at top, you can break down the data into individual areas.

Prints & drawings is the biggest - spurred by a 1916 acquisition financed by Minneapolis Journal publisher Herschel Jones - while the Asian collections have grown substantially in the past half century, thanks in large part to longtime benefactor Bruce Dayton's interest in Chinese art and the 2013 acquisition of the Clark Collection of Japanese Art.

Source: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, data analysis by Frances Lloyd-Baynes