The Ryerss Museum occupies the first floor of the original Ryerss Mansion, as well as two large rear galleries built in the 1920s to accommodate additional art and objects. The front parlor, dining room, and rear parlor of the original home currently display the art and furniture that originally decorated the house, as well as portraits of Ryerss family members and a number of family heirlooms.
The two rear galleries are devoted to displaying art and artifacts that various family members collected from around the world. The first floor gallery displays a vast number of objects from China, Japan, India and Tibet. Porcelain figures, carved ivory objects, wooden models of boats and farm tools, fans, cast metal religious art, and a set of Japanese Buddhist temple objects comprise this gallery.
The second floor gallery is devoted in large part to European art and objects, including glassware, vases, ceramic figures, and pottery, as well as a case of historic weapons, Native American woven baskets, and the family’s natural history collection of shells, rocks, minerals, and sea creatures. The second floor gallery also displays of portraits of family ancestors, and a number of painted portraits of the family’s much beloved pets.