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Women’s Culture

American Philanthropy and Art, 1830-1930

Kathleen McCarthy here presents the first book-length treatment of the vital role middle- and upper-class women played in the development of American museums in the century after 1830. By promoting undervalued areas of artistic endeavor, from folk art to the avant-garde, such prominent individuals as Isabella Stewart Gardner, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller were able to launch national feminist reform movements, forge extensive nonprofit marketing systems, and "feminize" new occupations.

342 pages | 18 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 1991

Art: American Art

Culture Studies

Gender and Sexuality

History: American History

Women's Studies

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One - Separatist Strategies
1. Culture and Gender in Antebellum America
2. Candace Wheeler and the Decorative Arts Movement
3. Separatism and Entrepreneurship
Part Two - Assimilationists
4. Artists and Mentors
5. Museums and Marginalization
Part Three - Individualists
6. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court
7. Women and the Avant-Garde
8. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney: From Studio to Museum
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Awards

Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA): Outstanding Book in Nonprofit & Voluntary Action Research
Won

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