The Peacock Room Comes to America

Explore artist James McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room in the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery and learn about its dynamic, cosmopolitan history in this fully interactive, visually stunning app. A scrolling panorama offers a virtual tour of the room as it is installed today. Tap on the paintings, ceramics, or decorative elements for more information and related multimedia content, such as audio guides by Freer|Sackler curators. An interactive timeline illuminates the room’s changing appearance as it moved from Victorian London to Gilded Age Detroit and finally came to rest at the Freer Gallery, where it has been on display since the museum opened in 1923. The app includes images of more than 250 Asian ceramics, detailed views of the room’s architecture and decoration, and a rich selection of archival documents and photographs. You can also curate your own installation by selecting pots to display on the Peacock Room sideboard, and then create a postcard of your design to share with friends. In addition, you can watch a video that takes you behind the scenes of the recent reinstallation. To learn more, visit the Freer|Sackler website at asia.si.edu and “The Story of the Beautiful: Freer, Whistler, and Their Points of Contact” at peacockroom.waynestate.edu.

The app was developed by Arcade Sunshine Media (arcadesunshine.com). Content was created by Freer Gallery curator Lee Glazer, with additional contributions by Maya Foo, Louise Cort, Massumeh Farhad, Howard Kaplan, Andrew Hare, and Julian Raby, the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art. Jane Lusaka, Joelle Seligson, and Nancy Eickel edited the text. Generous support was provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, Inc. Unless otherwise indicated, archival images and photographs of objects are from the Freer Gallery of Art and Freer|Sackler Archives, Smithsonian Institution; photos by Neil Greentree, Robert Harrell, and John Tstantes. All rights reserved.