PCAL Calendar

History suggests that as “big business” started to take hold in the late 1800s, women became more involved in business and working outside the home. However, few women owned companies. Those that did were in industries centered on women, such as home goods, apparel, or personal care.

Today, women own only 40% of businesses in the U.S., making Carrie Burnam Taylor’s business of the early 20th century that much more impressive. Curated with Dr. Carrie Cox, this exhibit will explore Taylor's life and work, displaying three of her dresses, two coats, two bodices, and various undergarments recently conserved thanks to our Adopt-an-Artifact program.

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This exhibit primarily focuses on the role of writing in two early urban societies, Mesopotamia and Egypt. The artifacts are roughly 4,300 to 3,000 years old. In the 19th century, museums and libraries throughout the Western world acquired cultural artifacts from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, often from a desire to connect with what they considered the origins of Western civilization or Biblical History.

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In the late 1800s, stitchery from London's Royal School of Art needlework and Japanese arts and crafts exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition inspired women across America to take up their needles in new and different ways. Explore the various "maniacal" and "maddening" designs that resulted in this showcase of our Crazy Quilt collection.