The Peabody Essex Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum is a leading museum of Asian art and culture and early American maritime trade and whaling; its collections of Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese art, and in particular Chinese export porcelain, are among the finest in the country. It is now America's oldest continuously operating museum, having been founded in 1799. The museum owns and exhibits a number of historic houses in downtown Salem. In 2003, it completed a massive renovation and expansion, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and moved a 200-year-old 16-room Chinese home from Xiuning County in southeastern China to the grounds of the Museum.