I Have Been to the Mountaintop by Richard Hunt © Graphite, ink, marking pen on paper, ca. 1977. Gift from Bernice Cooper and Family in memory of Irby Cooper. 2005.1.1

When the Art Museum of the University of Memphis (AMUM) opened in 1981 as the University Gallery it was intended for temporary and traveling contemporary art exhibitions. Its name, which was changed in 1994, reflected that purpose. The storage and exhibition preparation areas were small because the emphasis was on showcasing rather than storing art objects.

Over the years, AMUM received a collection of Egyptian antiquities, now part of the Museum's permanent collection, a gift of more than 180 pieces of Sub-Saharan African art from Martha and Robert Fogelman, more than 1,000 works on paper, as well as various cultural artifacts, including two suits of Japanese armor, flintlock dueling pistols, Ethiopian spear points, ancient Greco Roman glass, and Navaho textiles.