Dianne Sachko Macleod
This insightful and beautifully illustrated book offers the first feminist analysis of the phenomenon of women art collectors in America. Dianne Sachko Macleod brings a surprising paradox to light, showing that collecting, which provided wealthy women with a private sense of solace, also liberated them to venture into the public sphere and make a lasting contribution to the emerging American culture. Beginning in the antebellum period, continuing through the Gilded Age, and reaching well into the twentieth century, Macleod shows how elite women enlisted the objets d'art and avant-garde paintings in their collections in causes ranging from the founding of modern museums to the campaign for women's suffrage."Macleod's impressive grasp of the complexities of collecting brings to life the idea of the female collector and the limitless horizons that collecting embodied as an expression of personal identity and female agency. . . . Essential." — Choice: Current Reviews For Academic Libraries
"A valuable addition to our belated understanding of the crucial role that women played outside the studio and inside the museum." — Artnet Magazine
