The story of Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art reaches as far as 1913. It was then that twelve women founded St. Joseph Art League, which aimed to increase public awareness and understanding of the arts. Their first painting, A Venetian Balcony by William Merritt Chase, was acquired with funds raised at performances as well as tea gatherings and was exhibited at a local department store. With time, in 1966, the League opened the Albrecht Gallery in the former home of Mr. and Mrs. William Albrecht, but it wasn't until 1991 that it became the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art—honoring the patronage of Mr. R. Crosby Kemper—when the building was expanded.

Through the generosity of the Kemper family, foundations, and other supporters, the Museum's collection has grown to include colonial portraits, American landscape paintings, as well as distinguished examples of American Impressionism. Some of the works embrace urban realist paintings from the Ashcan School, Custer’s Last Stand by the influential regionalist Thomas Hart Benton, as well as Mary Cassatt's pastel, Mother Looking Down Embracing Both of Her Children—a study of an oil now hanging in the White House.