Myth, Muse, Mistress: Women as Art at the Elms
With Preservation Society Curatorial Research Fellow Priscilla Bright
How do Gilded Age representations of women present ideals of femininity at odds with their real lives? Preservation Society Research Fellow Priscilla Bright leads a tour that examines select artworks in The Elms to help answer this question.
Explore how idealized portraits of society women like Elizabeth Drexel Lehr reflected expectations placed upon them and learn about these women’s accomplishments outside the shadow of powerful men. Attendees will also consider how mythological women in art, from Diana the Huntress to Aphrodite, conveyed the personal virtues of Gilded Age women.
Priscilla Bright earned a Master of Arts in Museum and Artifact Studies from Durham University, Durham, UK. While at Durham, Priscilla selected research projects with Newport themes, authoring successful papers on Alice Vanderbilt’s Electric Light gown and a Bernard Palissy earthenware platter with provenance linked to both Émile Gavet and Edward Berwind. In addition to a successful summer working as a Museum Educator and Associate Tour Guide at the Preservation Society, Priscilla has experience working as a gallery assistant for Galerie Beauté du Matin Calme in Paris, The Guild of Boston Artists in Boston and Anchor Bend Glassworks in Newport.
More Tours, Events & Exhibitions
Beneath The Breakers Tour
Daily
10:00am
Explore the underground systems that made this great house a marvel of technology for its time.
The Breakers Third Floor Preservation in Progress Tour
Daily
2:00pm
For the first time in the 129-year history of The Breakers, the private third-floor family space occupied by generations of Vanderbilts is open for public tours.
Servant Life Tour
Daily
10 am and 2 pm
See and hear how the other half lived. This tour will highlight the stories of some of the men and women who worked to service the social whirl of Newport during the Gilded Age.
Lifting the Curtain: Behind the Scenes of Museum Work
January 23 – April 10, 2025
11:00am – 12:30pm
This series of programs, listed below, offers glimpses into the work that happens behind the scenes at the Newport Mansions, including curatorial, conservation, preservation, historical research and interpretation.
