Telfair Museums, in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, was the first public art museum in the Southern United States. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791–1875), a prominent local citizen, and operated by the Georgia Historical Society until 1920, the museum opened in 1886 in the Telfair family's renovated Regency style mansion, known as the Telfair Academy. The museum currently contains a collection of over 4,500 American and European paintings, sculptures, and works on pa