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A String of Pearls in a Shoebox

by Marie Penny

In a radiantly decorated and appointed turn-of-the-century tea house on a Long Island estate, the vision of American artist and Elsie de Wolfe protégé Everett Shinn stands revealed.
Mistress of Her Domain

by Alexandra Frantischek Rodriguez-Jack

As a female-coded area, the estrado provided women a degree of autonomy and self-expression not generally possible in Continental or colonial society of the time.
The Woman Who Loved Beautiful Things

by Mitchell Owens

Rita Lydig coveted rare art and ravishing antiques to the point of bankruptcy. But her fine-tuned aesthetic sense remained intact until the last penny.

Exhibitions: Due North at the Met - A show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates (if a year late) the 250th anniversary of the birth of Caspar David Friedrich in 1774.

Swing City - The keen eye and advocacy of New York collector and retailer Kathryn Hausman have served to breathe new life into the arts of the Jazz Age, a century on.

American Treasures - The women of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America have been preserving history since 1891.

Ready to Wear - One of the most discerning collectors of costume jewelry is fashion designer Norma Kamali, who has been snapping up lux and creative examples from around the world since the 1960s.

Endnotes: A New Day for Traditional Craft - We introduce a curator who will spotlight Indigenous ceramics at the Gardiner Museum.

Exhibitions: Art on the Go - The collection that makes up Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce was assembled by Luis A. Ferré, one of the most interesting men of his age.

Books: Seine Kid - Like a decadent lady cake crafted by the finest chef a Gilded Age heiress could hire, the artwork of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artist Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855–1919) exudes a rich taste.

Exhibitions: Discovering Caillebotte - When it comes to the likes of Monet, Manet, and Renoir, it seems there’s little left to unearth beneath the impressionist sun. But when it comes to Gustave Caillebotte, their less colorful colleague, tales remain to be told.

Objects: Masters of Disguise - Made for a simple purpose—to store tea securely—antique wooden caddies come in a variety of ingenious forms, some made to confound would-be thieves, others to amaze.

An American Chorus - Visitors who stop by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing will be greeted not only by the exciting, challenging newness of the reinstallation—undertaken to mark the Wing’s hundredth anniversary—but given the opportunity to look beyond surfaces, with the help of two many-voiced audio guides that unravel the foundational myths of American art history object by object.

PASSING FANCIES: What Happened to Curtains? A conversation with textile specialist Natalie F. Larson - Natalie F. Larson owns Historic Textile Reproduction, a company that specializes in producing textiles and custom window treatments for historic preservation projects undertaken by federal agencies and private collectors.

Exhibitions: Unknown Country - Recently it has seemed as if the only tradition revered in the museum world is the critique of tradition, a cause for score-settling as well as the occasional revelation.