 The idea of a museum in Doylestown dedicated to the works of the Pennsylvania Impressionists has been around at least since 1949, when local artist Walter Emerson Baum founded an informal committee along with Bucks County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Charles H. Boehm, and "The Daily Intelligencer" editor George Hotchkiss to explore the possibilities of the establishment of such an institution.In the 1970s Bucks County commissioners established the "Bucks County Council on the Arts", an agency set up to manage federal funded artwork intended to be included in government building projects.Some of the artwork they collected was put on display at their headquarters in the Neshaminy Manor office in Doylestown Township.