Jim Thompson House Museum
A silk entrepreneur's teakwood house and Southeast Asian art collection, now one of Bangkok's best-known heritage museums
The Jim Thompson House Museum is a heritage house and art museum in central Bangkok built by James H. W. Thompson, an American businessman and architect credited with reviving Thailand's silk industry after founding the Thai Silk Company Limited in 1948. In 1959 he assembled the museum from six traditional Thai-style teakwood houses, most dismantled from sites around Ayutthaya and Bangkrua and rebuilt on the bank of Khlong Saen Saep, opposite the weaving community his company worked with.
Thompson disappeared without a trace while walking in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia in 1967, and the house passed to The James H. W. Thompson Foundation, which operates it today under the royal patronage of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. The museum preserves Thompson's residence largely as he left it, along with his personal collection of Southeast Asian art: Buddhist sculpture, traditional Thai paintings, Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, and pieces gathered on his travels through Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
Visitors take guided tours through the house and gardens, available in several languages, and the surrounding Jim Thompson Heritage Quarter includes a shop selling Thai silk products under the Jim Thompson brand that grew out of his original company. As both a record of one entrepreneur's role in building a Thai export industry and a showcase of regional art and architecture, the museum is a frequent stop for visitors exploring Bangkok's cultural and business history.