Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American “Schoolgirl” Art

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. This major loan exhibition brings together approximately 100 exceptional objects from over 35 museums and private collections nationwide, uniting celebrated masterpieces with remarkable lesser-known gems rarely seen by the public.

Timed to coincide with the US’s semiquincentennial, the "Locating Girlhood" both celebrates the creativity of early American girls and women and critically examines the colonial and early federal ideologies that structured their worldview.