An exhibit at Norwalk's Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is highlighting Irish history.

A Journey of Hope: The Irish American Immigrant Experience explores the Irish-American immigrant experience. Over a million people emigrated from Ireland in the 1840s and 50s due to the Irish Famine.

The exhibit has been created in collaboration with Quinnipiac University and Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield.

It features over 30 paintings and sculptures created by artists from the 1850s along with contemporary artists.

Amy O'Shea, the vice president of Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, says the pieces used to be housed at the museum's former location in Hamden. O'Shea say they are currently working to find a permanent home for the artwork, which is the world's largest collection of famine-related art.

Until that permanent home is found, the artwork will be featured in temporary exhibits in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts.

Lockwood staff say they are thrilled by the attention the exhibit has received from visitors.

"It's one of the most beautiful ones. And as you can see, the art in here, it's the anguish and the people that had to come over here. It's the fear, but it's also the hope that they had somewhere to start a better future," says Douglas Hempstead, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

The exhibit was initially meant to run through May, but Hempstead says it has been extended through September.