The Timken Museum of Art in San Diego's Balboa Park has its roots in the serendipitous relationship between two sisters, Anne R. and Amy Putnam, members of the Ohio-based Timken family of the Timken roller bearing fame, and San Diego attorney Walter Ames.

Together the Putnam sisters spent decades acquiring old European master paintings. Initial paintings from the sisters' collection were donated to San Diego's Fine Arts Gallery (now the San Diego Museum of Art). Their later acquisitions were loaned to prestigious museums around the country until the Timken Museum of Art opened in 1965.

The sisters hired local San Diego architect Frank Hope Sr. to design a dignified but modern gallery space for their growing collection. The museum has an H-shape plan and is constructed of steel sheathed in Travertine marble.