The Open Provenance logo was designed by Idie Park, Class of 2026. 

In 2025, the Davis launched Open Provenance, an initiative to publish objects’ provenance on eMuseum, the Davis’s online collections database. Provenance is an important part of every object’s history–it is the record of ownership since an artwork was made. This helps us to understand how people have created meaning from the same object over time. Many artworks at the Davis have crossed centuries and continents before arriving at Wellesley. Without full provenance, it can be difficult or impossible to know an artwork’s context of origin. This prevents a full understanding of an artwork’s history of meaning. The Davis staff seeks transparency regarding how this collection was assembled in order to be responsible stewards, especially in rare instances of unethical exchanges of ownership. New discoveries about the Davis collections can be relayed to our team via this online form. Open Provenance is a years-long project–new and updated provenance will be added to the database as it becomes available.