Chronicling lost legacies: women collectors, patrons, and tastemakers

Abstract

"Chronicling Lost Legacies enhances our understanding of the evolution of artistic taste and cultural heritage institutions within the U.S., highlighting historical narratives of women art collectors and patrons. Organized chronologically and thematically, it covers figures from colonial times to the twentieth century, concluding with insights from feminist historian Laura R. Prieto. The volume illuminates the lives of lesser-known and iconic influential women such as Florence Sloane and Abby Rockefeller, challenging male-dominated narratives and showcasing female agency, resilience, and collecting practices. Ideal for scholars and art enthusiasts, it offers a timely reexamination of the forces that have shaped our cultural institutions"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction : collecting mavens and cultural heritage patrons / Samantha Deutch and Margaret R. Laster -- Colonial Dutch she-merchants as collectors / Louisa Wood Ruby -- "Too independent for a lady" : art, capital, and propriety in nineteenth-century Tennessee / Rachel Stephens -- Alice Sturgis Hooper : the woman who captured Turner's "slave ship" / Nancy Scott -- Buying and selling tapestries in the Gilded Age : Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst and Charles Mather Ffoulke / Denise M. Budd -- "Keenly interested in art" : the collectors Anna Sinton Taft and Mary Muhlenberg Emery of Cincinnati / Lynne D. Ambrosini -- "The desire to create" : Alva Vanderbilt Belmont's memoirs and rewriting an artistic legacy / Kedra Kearis -- "Collecting is undoubtedly a disease, incurable I fear, but delightful" : Florence Sloane, collecting and communal uplift in Norfolk, Virginia / Evie Terrono -- Defining modernism : Abby Rockefeller and the beginning of MoMA's permanent collection / Eliza Butler -- New forms-new media : Martha Jackson and neo-dada / Jillian Russo -- Afterword : naming opportunities / Laura R. Prieto.