The Art of Aquisition

Posted on February 28, 2013 by mlane

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Proud Woman Moses Masaya c.1991

Pewter Teapot c. 1845

Tin glaze earthenware plate

The Reverend John Williamson Nevin by Jacob Eichholtz c. 1841

Tin glaze earthenware plate with green and blue decoration c. 1730

Stoneware pitcher or jug c. 1840

Diamond cut clear colorless glass champagne flute c. 1815

Wedgewood type basalt coffeepot c. 1800

Spirit Emerging from Stone Edronce Rukodzi c. 1990

Red tansfer printed plate c. 1830

Pewter Porringer c. 1817

Federal Style Mantel 1790-1810

Engraved and cut wine glass c. 1790

Don Quixote green transfer printed plate c. 1828

Pewter Plate c. 1790

Chinese export porcelain cup and saucer c. 1800

Chain decorated blown decanter c. 1813

Brightcut pewter coffepot c. 1790

right

“When you are looking at an artefact you are looking at a person’s thoughts” (1)

Traditionally, one of the primary roles of museum collections has been to “preserve objects of cultural and scientific importance” (Miller). Museum collections also serve as portals that spark wonder and inquiry as well as creative and intellectual pursuits. College museum collections serve yet another purpose in that they cultivate experiential learning opportunities for students to engage all of their senses, acquiring 2 1st Century Skills that will allow them to succeed in an ever changing world. As students encounter an object for the first time and consider material, form, function and context they engage reason, systems thinking, problem solving, collaboration, visual literacy, scientific and numerical literacy, information and media literacy and cross-disciplinary thinking. They gain both local and global perspectives as they consider the society, contexts and economics in which the objects were made. Even the most commonest of objects can spark new areas of pursuit.

The collection of The Phillips Museum continues to grow through new gifts from generous alumni and community friends, in addition to purchases acquired by the museum to fill in key areas of the collection to enhance teaching and learning.

Neoclassical Mantel
1790-1810
Mid-Atlantic Region
This extraordinary American neoclassical mantel from the Federal Period was a gift from an anonymous donor and is currently on view in the Nissley Gallery. The mantel is purported to have been saved from a house located at Pennsylvania Ave. and 4th St. in Washington D.C. that was demolished in the 1930s during a period of modernization in the capital city. It is considered to be among the very best known examples of neoclassical mantels and is rich in Greek and Roman form and ornament. It greatly enhances the College’s Federal Period holdings and will serve as a centerpiece for a summer research project by History Major Dan Burke ‘ 14.

The Reverend John Williamson Nevin (1803-1886)
c. 1841
Jacob Eichholtz (American painter, 1776 to 1842)
Gift of Nancy Swart Meredith and Donald Ray Meredith of West Virginia. The painting was in the home of Edward C. Steward of Washington, Pennsylvania (Nancy Meredith’s maternal grandfather). Nevin served as President of Franklin and Marshall College from 1866 to 1876. The family does not know how it was acquired but family history records members serving in pastorates in various areas in the United States. Thanks to this generous gift, the College now owns 2 of 4 known portraits of Nevin painted by Eichholtz and students will be able to engage in side by side comparisons of the portraits to inquire into the nature of American portraiture.

Spirit Emerging From Stone
c. 1991
Edronce Rukodzi (Zimbabwe, born 1952)
Guruve Serpentine Stone

Proud Woman
c. 1991
Moses Masaya (Zimbabwe, 1947-1996)
Springstone Serpentine

Gift of ……These two Shona Sculptures are the first contemporary African sculptures in the collection. They compliment a small collection of works on paper and paintings by contemporary African artists from the Bill Hutson Collection.

Decorative Arts: The museum has recently purchased several objects in glass, pewter and ceramics that fill in key areas of the collections that will allow students to consider the role of material, design, form and the social context of objects in everyday life. Highlights include:

Brightcut “lighthouse” pewter (britannia) coffeepot
Israel Trask (1792-1847)
Beverly, Massachusetts, c. 1813-c. 1856
Pewter (britannia) with wood finial and handle

Wedgwood-type basalt coffeepot
Manufacturer unknown
Staffordshire, England, 1800-1815
Basalt (refined black stoneware)

Chain-decorated blown decanter
Attributed to Thomas Cains
South Boston Flint Glass Works or Phoenix Glass Works
Boston, Massachusetts, 1812-27
Clear colorless glass

Notes:

(1) Exhibition of collections of human history, Newfoundland Museum. In Susan M. Pearce. Museums, Objects, and Collections. Smithsonian Books, 1993.

(2) Steven H. Miller in Edward P. Alexander and Mary Alexander. Musuems in Motion. New York: Alta Mira Press, 2008 p. 187.

The Participatory Museum = The Phillips Museum

Posted on January 25, 2013 by mlane

The Participatory Museum: “a place where visitors can create, share, and connect with each other around content.”

“I define a participatory cultural institution as a place where visitors can create, share, and connect with each other around content. Create means that visitors contribute their own ideas, objects, and creative expression to the institution and to each other. Share means that people discuss, take home, remix, and redistribute both what they see and what they make during their visit. Connect means that visitors socialize with other people—staff and visitors—who share their particular interests. Around content means that visitors’ conversations and creations focus on the evidence, objects, and ideas most important to the institution in question.” -Nina Simon, Author of The Participatory Museum

Visitor studies tell us that museum visitors bring their own knowledge, experience and values to the museum. By inviting visitors to participate in the interpretation of objects by creating meaning-making experiences, we open the door to partnership, collaboration, dialogue and innovation. We empower our visitors to make the museum their own; to take control of their learning; to become co-creators and to become life-long learners.

The Nissley Gallery, not only serves as the museum’s permanent collection gallery but also serves as a laboratory for museum staff to collaborate with faculty, staff, and visitors to explore the permanent collection. By experimenting with how objects are displayed and interpreted, we invite audience participation, stimulate conversation and and promote collaboration with the campus community.

In the October 2011 dedication of the Nissley Gallery, Director Eliza Reilly proclaimed the museum’s mission as ”… a laboratory…. and a uniquely un-hierarchal and participatory one, at that. In a museum exhibition, no single person’s vision, from the youngest visitor to the most seasoned scholar, prevails. Our museum has in a short time become that rare place where students, faculty, and professional staff, collaborate WITH audiences and the public to create new knowledge and to offer it to the world.”

The current installation “Collections Dialogues” juxtaposes objects, such as an unlikely pairing of Andy Warhol’s Jimmy Carter with a 19th century portrait of Anne Lawler Ross to invite visitors to explore both continuity and change in portraiture over time and to spark conversation. It groups together a classical bust of John Marshall, a history painting by Jacob Eichholtz and a 19th century sofa to visually demonstrate the permanence of classical forms throughout Western Culture. Visitors are invited to use observation and draw their own conclusions as to how the objects relate to one another and to consider how these forms prevail across time and place.

Viewing the work of contemporary abstract artist Bill Hutson, visitors are invited to explore the blurred lines between “painting” and “object” in post-modern art. Is an object that is painted a painting or an object? Is a painting that has found objects mounted to the canvas an object or a painting? Visitors are encouraged to decide for themselves and engage in conversation using the twitter hashtag #youdecide. By using various forms of exhibition design techniques such as those described above, The Phillips Museum is making an attempt to socially engage our audience through the interpretation of objects.

The most recent installation, The Protest Tree, was inspired by a tree on campus in which students voiced their discontent between the 1950s and the 1970s. The space acted as a podium for students to express their concern with a desired involvement in both campus and world affairs. Posters displaying items such as political satire or criticism of faculty were hung anonymously for all of campus to see with the intent to spark discussion and increase awareness of the issues raised.

We invited students to participate in a roundtable discussion to help shape The Protest Tree. In drafting the question for this participatory element, we took Simon’s advice for basic motivation in asking visitors questions:
1. encourage deep and personal engagement
2. motivate interpersonal dialogue among visitors
3. provide feedback for staff

So we posed a question that encompassed those motivations, and left sticky notes and pencils out for visitors to easily participate in the activity. We hope to encourage active engagement with The Protest Tree by providing the freedom for our visitors to express their opinions. We invite you to come into the museum, explore our collection, share your point of view and engage in dialog. Make the museum your museum. Later in the semester, we will be asking you, “what issues do you want to talk about on the protest tree?”

This post was a collaboration between Brittany Baksa and Maureen Lane.

Family Roots

Posted on November 21, 2012 by mlane

Made by Leah Lightner Dale

In 1871, Leah L. Lightner Dale (American, 1789-1866), at the age of 82, made three extraordinary hand-drawn family trees tracing the history of her father and mother’s genealogy. One of these family trees tracing the lineage of the Pennsylvania Ferree Family is currently on exhibition in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum of Art. While very little is known about Leah herself, these family trees serve as a portal to the past that tell a story of politics, religion, migration, new beginnings and family ties.

Leah Lightner Dale was born in 1789 to John Adam Lightner (1743-1798) and Leah Ferree (1757-1841 m. 1777) of Leacock Township Lancaster County. Little is known about Dale other than at the age of 45, she married Samuel Futhey Dale III Esq. (American 1773-1842) in 1834. Judge Dale was a widower who served in The War of 1812 and was a Lancaster County Judge for more than 20 years. Only one personal account was found that described Leah Lightner Dale as “a woman of superior intelligence, furnished most of the facts for this sketch, and a member of the Episcopal Church, to which her mother also belonged.” (Evans).

The Ferrees were French Huguenots descended from La Fierres, a noble family dating back to 13^th century Normandy. The Huguenots were Protestants who were nobility, intellectuals, skilled craftsman and tradesman who followed the teachings of John Calvin and rejected Catholicism. Daniel LaVerre (Ferree) was a Calvinist silk weaver who lived in Landau, in the resource rich borderland of Rhineland, which at that time was controlled by France. There he lived with his wife Marie (changed to Mary when she came to America) Warenbuer Ferree and their six children. In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and enacted a policy of violent intimidation to force Protestants to convert to Catholicism. Daniel, a devoted Calvinist, as well as a prosperous silk waver from an old and influential family was presumably a target and his family fled to Strasbourg Germany, abandoning most of their property. Sometime during this period Issac LeFevre, age 10 became associated with the family, and later settled in America with the Ferrees, marrying their eldest daughter Catherine. It is here that accounts of the family’s journey to America varies based on family legend, sporadic documentation and conjecture. It is believed that Daniel died around 1707 prior to the family reaching America. Marie was left to resettle the family of six children including her oldest son, his wife and their children. According to one family myth, Marie traveled to London and intercepted William Penn’s carriage on the road to plead her family’s case for resettlement in Pennsylvania. In this account, William Penn was sympathetic to the family’s plight, introduced them to Queen Anne and provided the necessary references and agents to secure passage and a land grant for the family. While this story was recounted in both the family history written by Leah Lighnter Dale and during an address delivered by Redmond Conyngham in 1842, there is no corroborating evidence that supports the legend.

In other accounts, the family embarked for Holland in 1708, where they were given religious and political asylum and then issued free passage to England. As the Huguenots were skilled tradesman, intellectuals and families of noble lineage, their skills were highly sought after in England, Holland and the colonies. The British Crown wanted to establish a strong Protestant presence in the colonies. In 1708, Queen Anne sponsored one of the first migrations of 41 Palatines to the English colonies, of which a Daniel Fiere (possibly one of the sons) is purported to have been on board with his wife. It is reported that some of the older children traveled to the colonies while Marie remained in Holland with the younger children for an unknown period of time. Once the family was reunited, they settled temporarily in New Paltz, NY while they waited for their land to be surveyed and the land grant to be issued. The family petitioned to continue the purchase of 2,000 acres under Marie’s name. However, as a woman, she was not granted legal ownership by the Pennsylvania Land Commissioners, even though she had the funds to purchase the land. Instead legal ownership was awarded to her son, Daniel Ferree, and to her son-in-law, Issaic LeFevre, age 14, for a sum of 150 English Pounds. The land was then distributed equally amongst family members who had each contributed a share of the purchase fee, including Mary (Marie) who paid and was a issued a receipt in her name for a track of the land near what was to become Paradise in the Valley of the Pequea. Many generations of the Ferree family lived in this area and are connected to family names that are still well known to many Lancaster County residents today. We invite you to come to the museum and see how many Lancaster Family names you recognize in the family tree.

Sources:

Family History of Lightner Family and Others of the Paradise Township, Lancaster Co. PA, Leah Lighner with transcription by Martha Myer in 1992 and 1993, Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society

Lancaster Examiner & Herald, Thursday, May 1, 1834.

USGenWeb Archives 2004 From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chicago: The Geneological Publishing co. 1905 pages 68-70 http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/bios/zeamer/dale-william-w.txt

Marriages and Deaths from the Newspapers of Lancaster County Pennsylvania, F. Edward Wright, Heritage Books 2009

History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Franklin Ellis, Samuel Evans, Philadelphia: Everts & Peck 1883

The National Huguenot Society http://huguenot.netnation.com/general/

The Huguenot Society of America http://www.huguenotsocietyofamerica.org/

The Palentine Emigration to America, Francis E. Pray The Gibbs Magzaine, The Nicholas Gibbs Historical Society 1972.

http://knoxcotn.org/about-knox-county/31-history/2-the-palatine-emigration-to-america-by-francis-e-pray

History of the Palentine Emigration Kathryn Parker http://knoxcotn.org/about-knox-county/31-history/2-the-palatine-emigration-to-america-by-francis-e-pray

Open Access Week

Posted on October 26, 2012 by mlane

The Phillips Museum Digital Collection Project Part 1

Courtesy of opensourceway. Creative Commons Share Alike.

This week is Open Access Week. What is the “Open” Movement about? It is a term that is often applied to journals, literature, content and data. More specifically the term “Open Access” refers to the concept that scholarly and government publications should be freely accessible via the Internet. In 2008, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University voted to adopt an Open Access Policy, which was followed by MIT, Berkley, Cornell, Dartmouth and eventually Yale.

The term “Open Data” refers to the philosophy “that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control” (Wikipedia). Folks who support Open Access and Open Data believe that the availability of these resources helps to stimulate new research, discovery and creativity and doesn’t necessarily infringe upon the original creator.

Copyright law is incredibly complex. In current U.S. copyright law, Intellectual Property is protected for 70 years after the creator’s death, offering legal and economic protection to the creators and their families, foundations and corporations. This helps to provide incentives for individuals and corporations to keep creating and publishing new original work. Eventually, after a long period of time, the work falls under “Public Domain,” in which the public is free to use, distribute or reuse the work without copyright restriction.

At The Phillips Museum, we are currently working on making our Public Domain works more accessible via a new online database running on a platform called eHive. Copyright can be an especially tricky thing for art museums. Copyright law has changed several times over the last century resulting in a range of rules that determine when creator copyright ends and when the Public Domain begins. Museums do not automatically own the copyright for works in the collection. Artists retain the copyright even if the work was sold or donated, unless they choose to legally transfer the copyright to the collector or museum, or until the work falls into the Public Domain.

Providing online access to works in which the copyright is owned by an artist or an artist’s estate requires permissions, licenses and fees, even for educational institutions such as ours. The doctrine of “Fair Use” is still being tested in the digital realm and museums are moving forward with great caution. Contrary to popular belief, using an image for noncommercial purposes is not considered “Fair Use.” There is a four-part litmus test that determines whether use of an image is “fair” and these guidelines are subject to interpretation by a court of law, if the use is challenged. There are several test cases examining whether the use of thumbnail images to point users to a digital resources is considered Fair Use. One of the most notable cases involving Google.

Fortunately, we have quite a few materials that fall under the scope of Public Domain, which we will be providing online access to in the upcoming year. Also, we were very fortunate to have acquired the legal transfer of copyright for a major body of work that was gifted to us.

As this project moves forward, we will provide updates and continue to discuss some of the issues and challenges related to making collections resources available online.

Learning the Art of Connoisseurship

Posted on June 5, 2012 by mlane

Historia Naturalis, hand-colored engraving, 1657

Each year, The Phillips Museum of Art collaborates with faculty to provide hands-on object based learning experiences to students across the curriculum. When Professor Michael Clapper of the Art Department approached the museum with an idea for a new take on object-based learning for his ART 249 History of Printmaking Class, Museum Director Eliza Reilly saw it as an opportunity to advance the idea of the museum as a “laboratory for learning.” The students became active contributors to the museum, overseeing the purchase of new works for the collection that will be studied by future generations of students for many years to come. The class was given a $1,000 budget to purchase prints of the students’ choosing to add to the museum’s permanent collection. The purchase project allowed students to apply their connoisseur skills to the real world, taught them how to make intelligent decisions when making purchases on the web, and inspired the next generation of art collectors proving that young collectors can start a substantive collection of quality historical and aesthetically interesting works of art on a modest budget. The staff was thrilled when we saw their purchases and we are very excited to have these prints as part of our collection. The prints were on view as part of the class’ exhibition Studying Human Nature and the World: Prints of the Seventeenth Century.

Professor Clapper summarizes their purchases:

Jacques Callot, The Strappado, plate 10 of The Miseries and Misfortunes of War, etching, 1633. This is the first work by this important printmaker to enter the college’s collection. Callot is known for his technical innovations in etching and ambiguity and complexity of his portrayal of human nature. He invented new tools and techniques so that he was able to make etchings in the style of engravings. The refinement and grandeur of his style contrasts with his often farcical or tragic subject matter. The Miseries and Misfortunes of War, a series of eighteen images that portrays the pageantry and the savagery of war, is his most renowned work. This image features the strappado, a torture device with which a person is suspended by their arms tied behind their back and then sometimes dropped and stopped short of the ground, causing intense pain an injury to the arms and shoulders. The artistic and social import of this print turn on the contrast between this gruesome practice and military orderliness elegantly portrayed. Bought over the web from Christopher Mendez, a London dealer in old master prints.

Matthaus Merian, Butterflies and Moths, from Historia Naturalis, hand-colored engraving, 1657. This is a fine example of a natural history print. Since its invention, printmaking had been used as a means of making exactly repeatable images for purposes of scientific cataloguing. Publications such as the one from which this page comes organized and transmitted knowledge about the natural world. Natural history prints are now appreciated primarily for their decorative effect, but they are historically important as documents of an attempt at orderly, comprehensive understanding of the world. The fact that such works are as much science as art makes them under-represented in many art collections, including ours, while the scarcity and high value of the entire volumes from which such images are taken makes them rare even in special collections libraries and liable to be disassembled and sold as separate leaves. Bought through EBay from Daniel Good, a major UK rare book dealer.

View of the southern Italian city of Tricarico, from Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, volume 6, engraving, 1617. This engraving comes from a six-volume city atlas that was a landmark publication in that its city views portray the actual features of particular cities, rather than fantasies or generic images. The first volume first appeared in 1572, shortly after the 1570 publication of Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first true atlas, for which Hogenberg had engraved the maps. This engraving comes from the sixth volume of the Civitates, first published in Latin in 1617. In addition to their technical and aesthetic merits, early city views like this demonstrate a new commitment to understanding the world through accurate, specific topographical representations. Bought on EBay.

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: World War II Souvenir Flag

Posted on May 4, 2012 by mlane

Today’s Guest Blogger is Rob Hasller an F&M American Studies and Art History major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

World Wart II souvenir flag or "hinomaru yosegaki", Japan, 1941-45, ink on silk

On November 1, 1945, an American soldier named Earl (last name unknown) sent two letters from his post in Manila Bay, the Philippines, to family members in Florida. Earl, stationed at Manila Bay in the Philippines and hoping to return to America to vote in his first election, enclosed this Japanese flag as a souvenir of the American enemy. The flag, known as a hinomaru yosegaki (“to write sideways around the red sun”), was a talisman given to a Japanese soldier bearing signatures and the wishes of good fortune of family and friends. The characters, written on the silk flag with brush and ink, usually flowed outward in a rayed pattern. In this example, crowded with well-wishes, the messages overlap the sun.

As American soldiers carried photographs of their family and loved ones, Japanese soldiers carried their hinomaru yosegaki as reminders to return home safely from the battlefield. Nothing further is known of the fallen Japanese soldier who carried this flag.

-Rob Hassler ’12-

Student researchers are exploring some of the mysteries behind museum objects to reveal hidden histories. Objects from the Museum Mysteries seminar course will be on view in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum through May 11, 2012.

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Pocket Bottle

Posted on April 27, 2012 by mlane

Today’s Guest Blogger is Karen Thomson, an F&M Anthropology and Spanish major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Pocket Bottle Attributed to the Henry William Stiegel glassworks (1764-75), Manheim, Pennsylvania, Nonlead glass

Pocket bottles held medicines, alcohol, or other liquids. This amethyst-colored example stands out for its visually appealing color and design. The combination of deep purple color (created by adding manganese oxide to the molten colorless glass batch), rounded shape, and particular diamond-daisy pattern characterizes bottles manufactured by German-American Henry William Stiegel (1729-85), who constructed and operated a glasshouse in Manheim, Pennsylvania, from 1764 to 1775. Glass historians have not found evidence that any other makers used the distinctive diamond-daisy pattern in the late 18th or early 19th century, which allows confident attribution to Stiegel.

To make this bottle, the glassblower blew his “gather” of glass into a partial-size or “dip” mold that imparted the diamond-daisy pattern. Next, the glassblower blew the bottle to its full size and flattened the sides to create its final form, a process that distorted the molded design. -Karen Thomson ’12-

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Coffee Grinder

Posted on April 25, 2012 by mlane

Today’s Guest Blogger is Deena Gittle an F&M Art History major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Coffee grinder, The Imperial Arcade Manufacturing Company (est. 1885), Freeport, Illinois, 1930s, iron, wood, and plastic

Coffee lovers agree that any device used to savor the flavor and aroma of coffee beans is useful. This coffee grinder was one of numerous designs produced by The Imperial Arcade Manufacturing Company over many decades. The company molded its name into the gold-colored cast iron and printed it along with the model and patent number on a label now missing from the front. This 1930s model has a distinctive S shaped handle that incorporates a knob made of an early type of plastic, which was an upgrade to wood.

“Burr grinders,” as these coffee grinders were sometimes called, were known for their innovative design that made them quieter, less messy, and less likely to clog. The distance between the two grinding wheels inside the grain-painted wood box was adjustable, allowing the user to select a finer or coarser grind, thereby enhancing the distinct flavor of the coffee beans. Ground coffee fell into the drawer below. -Deena Gittle ’12-

From the Collection: Caroline Peart

Posted on April 20, 2012 by mlane

Today’s guest blogger is F&M Art History Major, Megan Cohen ’12. Megan has been researching works by Caroline Peart (American Painter 1870-1963), from the permanent collection of The Phillips Museum of Art, which is the primary repository for the artist who resided in Lancaster County through various periods of her life. Megan has designed an exhibition of small works from the museum’s permanent collection, on view through May 12, 2012:

These small oil sketches were made by Caroline Peart (1870- 1963), a Philadelphia artist who studied with Cecilia Beaux at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. At the age of 18 Peart traveled to Italy, Spain, and France. During her travels she made dozens of small paintings on “academy boards,” which were an economical and lightweight alternative to traditional canvases. Originally designed for use by art students, academy boards were adopted by professional artists to make oil sketches while traveling. Many of the boards displayed here were purchased by Peart in Paris at the art supplier G. Sennelier, 3, quai Voltaire, 3 that still exists today.

Caroline Peart was one of 25 students chosen by noted American painter Cecilia Beaux for her advanced portraiture class. Beaux was the first woman to have a regular teaching position at PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts).

This 1890′s oil is believed to be a portrait of Cecilia Beaux. Peart used an academy board to first paint a rough sketch of the full-scale portrait displayed here.

Sketch for Woman with Violet Corsage

Peart became interested in a professional career around the same time that Beaux began teaching at the Academy. In Peart’s diary entries she writes that Beaux, her mentor, advised her not to pursue a career as a professional painter because of the hardships placed on women artists at the time. -Megan Cohen ’12-

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Tiara

Posted on April 18, 2012 by mlane

Today’s Guest Blogger is Emily Felber an F&M American Studies major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Tiara, probably United States, 1930-60, stamped brass

Today, a tiara may be used for many occasions: from playtime dress-up to formal weddings, from Halloween costumes to proms. To the wearer it denotes a sense of being special: regality, individuality, and perhaps an attention-demanding presence. This tiara, however, was not manufactured for twenty-first century aspiring princesses. Although nothing is known of its history, this stamped brass tiara has pseudo gemstones of modest quality and an adjustable strap to fit the user’s head. This cheaply constructed and inexpensive hair accessory likely mimicked fashions of some high-style elites of the 1920s and 1930s. -Emily Felber ’12-

The Phillips Museum of Art, Frames & Mountings

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