Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American "Schoolgirl" Art

Approximately 100 needlework pictures, samplers, watercolors, and other ornamental arts made by American girls in the 18th and 19th centuries, reframed through landscape and place.

Why go

Unlike earlier exhibitions, this show treats girlhood artworks as serious art historical objects, repositioning girls' landscape representations—from samplers to maps—as central to the American landscape tradition long before the Hudson River School.

What to expect

A major loan exhibition of roughly 100 objects from over 35 museums and private collections, featuring celebrated needlework masterpieces alongside lesser-known works, organized thematically around representations of place, landscape, and cartography.

Things to know

• Approximately 100 objects from over 35 museums and private collections nationwide.
• Curated by Emelie Gevalt, PhD, Deputy Director & Chief Curatorial and Program Officer, and Caroline Culp, PhD, Warren Family Assistant Curat
• Timed to coincide with the U.S. semiquincentennial.
• Explores girlhood artworks from an explicitly art historical perspective, reframing them through the lens of place.
• Lead support provided by Elizabeth and Irwin Warren, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Historical Society of Early American Decoration.

Plan your visit

Free admission. Open today 11:30 am–6:00 pm. Located at 2 Lincoln Square, New York City.

From the venue

Featuring spectacular examples of needlework and other ornamental arts made by American girls in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American "Schoolgirl" Art sheds new light on a rich but understudied genre, offering one of the most significant presentations on the subject in recent memory.