The Society houses a collection of more than 2,500 American paintings—portraits, genre scenes, and landscapes—dating from the colonial period through the 20th-century, as well as European works. Hudson River School landscapes include Thomas Cole’s iconic series The Course of Empire, and works by Church, Cropsey, Gifford, Kensett, Bierstadt, and deep holdings of Asher B. Durand. More than 8,000 drawings include all 435 of John James Audubon's preparatory watercolors for The Birds of America.
More than 800 works of sculpture from the colonial period to the present include portrait busts by Houdon, Greenough, and Hiram Powers, among others; works by Saint-Gaudens, Gutzon Borglum, Daniel Chester French and Anna Hyatt Huntington; folk sculpture; and a collection of works by the prolific "people's sculptor," John Rogers.
Furniture holdings number more than 500 objects; 3,000 pieces of Early American silver; Ceramics & Glass; 132 Tiffany lamps; and 2,000 textiles.