Enfilade

New Book | Tracks on the Ocean

Posted in books by Editor on May 29, 2024

Coming this fall, from The University of Chicago Press:

Sara Caputo, Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps, and Maritime Travel (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2024), 352 pages, ISBN: 978-0226837925, $38.

An engaging look at ocean routes’ complicated beginnings and elusive impact.

Sara Caputo’s Tracks on the Ocean is a sweeping history of how we have understood routes of travel over the ocean and how we came to represent that movement as a cartographical line. Focusing on the representation of sea journeys in the Western world from the early sixteenth century to the present, Caputo deftly argues that the depiction of these lines is inextricable from European imperialism, the rise of modernity, and attempts at mastery over nature. Caputo recounts the history of ocean tracks through an array of lively stories and characters, from the expeditions of Captain James Cook in the eighteenth century to tracks depicted in Moby Dick and popular culture of the nineteenth century to the use of navigational techniques by the British navy. She discusses how tracks evolved from tools of surveying into tools of surveillance and, eventually, into paths of environmental calamity. The impulse to record tracks on the ocean is, Caputo argues, reflective of an ongoing desire for order, schematization, and personal visibility, as well as occupation and permanent ownership—in this case over something that is unoccupiable and impossible to truly possess. Both beautifully written and deeply researched, Tracks on the Ocean shares how the lines drawn on maps tell the audacious and often tragic and violent stories of ocean voyages.

Sara Caputo is a senior research fellow and director of studies in history at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. She is the author of Foreign Jack Tars: The British Navy and Transnational Seafarers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

New Book | Denmark Vesey’s Bible

Posted in books by Editor on May 27, 2024

Having first appeared from Princeton UP in 2022, the book was released in paperback this spring (the hardcover edition is included in the press’s 50% off sale, which ends May 31).

Jeremy Schipper, Denmark Vesey’s Bible: The Thwarted Revolt That Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022), 216 pages, ISBN: 978-0691192864 (hardcover), $27 / ISBN: 978-0691259314 (paperback), $19.

book coverOn July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey, a formerly enslaved man, was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. He was convicted of plotting what might have been the largest insurrection against slaveholders in US history. Witnesses claimed that Vesey appealed to numerous biblical texts to promote and justify the revolt. While sentencing Vesey to death, Lionel Henry Kennedy, a magistrate at the trial, accused Vesey not only of treason but also of “attempting to pervert the sacred words of God into a sanction for crimes of the blackest hue.” Denmark Vesey’s Bible tells the story of this momentous trial, examining the role of scriptural interpretation in the deadly struggle against American white supremacy and its brutal enforcement.

Jeremy Schipper brings the trial and its aftermath vividly to life, drawing on court documents, personal letters, sermons, speeches, and editorials. He shows how Vesey compared people of African descent with enslaved Israelites in the Bible, while his accusers portrayed plantation owners as benevolent biblical patriarchs responsible for providing religious instruction to the enslaved. What emerges is an explosive portrait of an antebellum city in the grips of racial terror, violence, and contending visions of biblical truth. Shedding light on the uses of scripture in America’s troubled racial history, Denmark Vesey’s Bible draws vital lessons from a terrible moment in the nation’s past, enabling us to confront racism and religious discord today with renewed urgency and understanding.

Jeremy Schipper is professor in the Departments for the Study of Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is the coauthor, with Nyasha Junior, of Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon and the author of Disability and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant and Parables and Conflict in the Hebrew Bible. He lives in Toronto.

Exhibition | Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China

Posted in books, catalogues, exhibitions by Editor on May 23, 2024

From the press release for the exhibition (7 March 2024) . . .

奪天工 Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, 14 September 2024 — 6 January 2025

A new exhibition at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens will explore the potential of gardens as spaces that not only delight the senses and nourish the body but also inspire the mind—both intellectually and spiritually. The literati during China’s Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties believed gardens resulted in more ethical connections to all living things. On view in the Chinese Garden’s Studio for Lodging the Mind from 14 September 2024 to 6 January 2025, 奪天工 Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China will exhibit 24 objects, including hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, albums, and books from The Huntington’s collections and those throughout the United States. The exhibition will also feature a participatory artwork by contemporary Chinese artist Zheng Bo that was commissioned by The Huntington.

Growing and Knowing and the Huntington exhibition Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis will run concurrently as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, a regional event presented by Getty featuring more than 60 exhibitions and programs that explore the intersections of art and science, both past and present.

Growing and Knowing will present three key themes: ‘Growing’, ‘Knowing’, and ‘Being’.

Growing

The introductory section to the exhibition, ‘Growing’, will focus on historical horticultural practices in China, many of which are still practiced today. Chinese scholars and gardeners experimented with domestication, grafting, and hybridization to create unusual cultivars (new varieties of plants developed through human intervention). Throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, these techniques were well documented in horticultural manuals. Some of these books—such as The Secretly Transmitted Mirror of Flowers, completed by Chen Hao 陳淏 (1615–1703) in 1688—remained popular instructional guides in China into the 20th century. The well-known chrysanthemum flower exists as a result of hybridization experiments conducted by scholars and gardeners. Visitors will have the opportunity to view chrysanthemums in full bloom just outside of the exhibition walls in The Huntington’s Chinese Garden. Reproductions of gardening tools from the period will also be displayed.

Knowing

The second section, ‘Knowing’, will present a diverse selection of books and paintings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, showcasing the multiple ways that scholars thought about the plants they cultivated. “The works selected for ‘Knowing’ specifically highlight scholars’ understanding of plants as food, sources of emergency sustenance and pharmaceuticals, and keys to classical literature,” said exhibition curator Phillip E. Bloom, The Huntington’s June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies. A subtheme of the section will touch on the era’s hierarchies of knowledge—specifically how scholars’ intellectual knowledge of plants was valued over gardeners’ direct, physical knowledge. Gardeners’ bodily insights were largely ignored in historical texts, but they were revealed in visual sources. For example, the Ming dynasty painting Garden for Solitary Pleasure (17th century) shows a scholar lying deep in thought among bamboo and other trees, as nearby laborers bend over plants and carry tools to cultivate the scholar’s garden.

Being

Chinese scholars did not grow and learn about plants just for knowledge’s sake. Growing and knowing were means for them to better understand their place in the world and learn to interact more ethically with other creatures. The last section of the exhibition, ‘Being’, will explore these practices of self-cultivation. “In order to truly understand how nature works, scholars not only contemplated plants but also engaged with and learned from them,” Bloom said. “Caring for plants, observing their habits, taking pleasure in their forms, and ultimately recognizing their commonalities with humans were, in essence, practices whereby people may perfect themselves.” Pursuits of a Scholar, an 18th-century Qing dynasty painting album, dedicates several leaves to the different ways that scholars interacted with plants. One leaf shows a scholar writing observations of a bamboo plant in his study, while another depicts a scholar caring for chrysanthemums.

Ecosensibility Exercise: Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade 生態感悟練習: 聞香八段錦 by Zheng Bo

To invite visitors to develop their own meaningful relationships with their natural surroundings, The Huntington has commissioned the participatory artwork Ecosensibility Exercise: Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade by Hong Kong–based artist Zheng Bo. Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade is inspired by the traditional Chinese mind-body practice qigong 氣功. Building on exercises that date back nearly 900 years and remain widely practiced today, Zheng’s work includes eight exercises that combine simple full-body movements and deep breathing to activate the mind and body. Each exercise is performed with a fragrant plant, encouraging the participants to develop a human-plant connection. Visitors to the exhibition can perform the exercises on their own throughout The Huntington’s gardens at marked stops chosen by the artist. A film documenting the eight exercises will be shown in the gallery. The Huntington is also planning a series of public programs in which the artist will guide visitors through his reinterpreted movements.

Exhibition Catalog

The Huntington will publish an open-access digital catalog edited by Phillip E. Bloom, Nicholas K. Menzies (research fellow in The Huntington’s Center for East Asian Garden Studies), and Michelle Bailey (assistant curator for the Center for East Asian Garden Studies). The book will include seven essays, 16 catalog entries by various scholars, and a conversation with artist Zheng Bo. A paperback version of the catalog will be available at the Huntington Store.

This exhibition is made possible with support from Getty through its PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative.

Exhibition | Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain, 1520–1920

Posted in books, catalogues, exhibitions by Editor on May 18, 2024

From the press release for the exhibition:

Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain, 1520–1920
Tate Britain, London, 16 May — 13 October 2024

Tate Britain presents Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920. This ambitious group show charts women’s road to being recognised as professional artists, a 400-year journey that paved the way for future generations and established what it meant to be a woman in the British art world. The exhibition covers the period in which women were visibly working as professional artists, but went against societal expectations to do so.

Featuring over 100 artists, the exhibition celebrates well-known names such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Gwen John, alongside many others who are only now being rediscovered. Their careers were as varied as the works they produced. Some prevailed over genres deemed suitable for women like watercolour landscapes and domestic scenes. Others dared to take on subjects dominated by men like battle scenes and the nude, or campaigned for equal access to training and membership of professional institutions. Tate Britain will showcase over 200 works, including oil painting, watercolour, pastel, sculpture, photography, and ‘needlepainting’ to tell the story of these trailblazing artists.

Now You See Us begins at the Tudor court with Levina Teerlinc, many of whose miniatures are brought together for the first time in four decades, and Esther Inglis, whose manuscripts contain Britain’s earliest known self-portraits by a woman artist. The exhibition then looks to the 17th century. Focus is given to one of art history’s most celebrated women artists: Artemisia Gentileschi, who created major works in London at the court of Charles I, including the recently rediscovered Susanna and the Elders 1638–40, on loan from the Royal Collection for the very first time. The exhibition also looks to women such as Mary Beale, Joan Carlile, and Maria Verelst who broke new ground as professional portrait painters in oil.

Maria Cosway, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire as Cynthia from Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’, 1781–82, oil on canvas (The Devonshire Collection).

In the 18th century, women took part in Britain’s first public art exhibitions; these artists included overlooked figures such as Katherine Read and Mary Black; the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer; and Margaret Sarah Carpenter, a leading figure in her day but little heard of now. The show looks at Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, the only women included among the Founder Members of the Royal Academy of Arts; it took 160 years for membership to be granted to another woman. Women artists of this era are often dismissed as amateurs pursuing ‘feminine’ occupations like watercolour and flower painting, but many worked in these genres professionally: needlewoman Mary Linwood, whose gallery was a major tourist attraction; miniaturist Sarah Biffin, who painted with her mouth, having been born without arms and legs; and Augusta Withers, a botanical illustrator employed by the Horticultural Society.

The Victorian period saw a vast expansion in public exhibition venues. Now You See Us showcases major works by critically appraised artists of this period, including Elizabeth Butler (née Thompson)’s monumental The Roll Call 1874 (Butler’s work prompted critic John Ruskin to retract his statement that “no women could paint”), and nudes by Henrietta Rae and Annie Swynnerton, which sparked both debate and celebration. The exhibition will also look at women’s connection to activism, including Florence Claxton’s satirical ‘Woman’s Work’: A Medley 1861, which will be on public display for the first time since it was painted; and an exploration of the life of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, an early member of the Society of Female Artists who is credited with the campaign for women to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools. On show will be the student work of women finally admitted to art schools, as well as their petitions for equal access to life drawing classes.

The exhibition ends in the early 20th century with women’s suffrage and the First World War. Women artists like Gwen John, Vanessa Bell and Helen Saunders played an important role in the emergence of modernism, abstraction and vorticism, but others, such as Anna Airy, who also worked as a war artist, continued to excel in conventional traditions. The final artists in the show, Laura Knight and Ethel Walker, offer powerful examples of ambitious, independent, confident professionals who achieved critical acclaim and—finally—membership of the Royal Academy.

The exhibition guide is available here»

Tabitha Barber, Tim Batchelor, Carol Jacobi, eds., Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920 (London: Tate Publishing, 2024), 224 pages, ISBN: ‎978-1849769259, £40.

New Publication | Close Encounters: The Low Countries and Britain

Posted in books by Editor on May 14, 2024

As noted at Art History News, the following essays are all available for free through the RKD’s website:

Karen Hearn, Angela Jager, Sander Karst, Rieke van Leeuwen, David Taylor, and Joanna Woodall, eds., Close Encounters: Cross-Cultural Exchange between the Low Countries and Britain, 1600–1830 (The Hague, Gerson Digital X, 2024, produced by Rieke van Leeuwen). Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the RKD, The Hague, 22–23 September 2022

Samuel van Hoogstraten, Perspective Portrait of a Young Man Reading in the Courtyard of an Imaginary Building, 1662–67 (Dordrecht: Dordrechts Museum, inv./cat.nr. DM/023/1525).

1  Refugees and Fortune Seekers: Artists from the Low Countries in Britain, An Overview in Numbers — Rieke van Leeuwen
2  Nicholas Stone the Elder (c. 1587–1647) and his Circle — Adam White
3  Between Two Courts: Gerard van Honthorst and Stuart Patrons in London and The Hague — Michele Frederick
4  Fire and Plague: Samuel van Hoogstraten’s Career in England — John Loughman
5  The Van de Velde Studio at the Queen’s House — Allison Goudie and Imogen Tedbury
6  Dutch Terminology in Artists’ Workshops in London — Ulrike Kern
7  Leatherwork and Kwab Frames: 17th-Century Auricular Picture Frames and their Anglo-Dutch Context — Gerry Alabone
8  Copying the Cartouche: Anglo-Dutch Encounters in Cartography and Slavery — Eleanor Stephenson
9  John van Collema: A Dutch India Goods Merchant in London — Amy Lim
10  The Print Collection of William Cartwright (1606–1686): A Reconstruction — Ellinoor Bergvelt
11  Thomas Worlidge’s Claim to Fame: An Approach to Rembrandt’s Printed Tronies in 18th-Century England — Rebecca Welkens
12  The Griffier Family of Painters and the Young Thomas Gainsborough — Rica Jones
13  Willem van de Velde’s Fame in 18th-Century England — Remmelt Daalder
14  In the Wake of the Old Masters: Dutch Modern Artists in Britain, 1780–1830 — Quirine van der Meer Mohr

Exhibition | Maria Cosway (1760–1838)

Posted in books, catalogues, exhibitions by Editor on May 11, 2024

Opening this month at the Pasquale Paoli Museum in Merusaglia:

Maria Cosway (1760–1838): A strada eccezziunale di un’artista
Museu Pasquale Paoli, Merusaglia (Corsica), 18 May — 30 October 2024

Curated by Amandine Rabier

exhibition posterMaria Cosway (1760–1838): A Strada eccezziunale di un’artista (L’itinéraire singulier d’une artiste), présentée au Musée Maison natale de Pasquale Paoli raconte le cheminement d’une femme brillante que tout prédestinait à une grande carrière d’artiste dans la High Society anglaise et qui, contre toute attente, trouvera sa véritable émancipation en renonçant à sa première vocation pour se consacrer à l’éducation des jeunes filles. Ami fidèle, Pasquale Paoli (1725–1807) fut présent à chaque étape de cette vie singulière. Ses lettres à l’attention de Maria Cosway, tel un fil rouge, ponctuent les différentes sections de cette exposition. Fruit de deux années de travail en collaboration avec des institutions britanniques et italiennes reconnues, l’exposition s’accompagne d’un catalogue édité en français et en anglais, richement illustré et documenté par des historiens d’art réputés, spécialistes du XVIIIe siècle, sous la direction d’Amandine Rabier, commissaire de l’exposition. Cette exposition est aussi pour le musée de Merusaglia, l’occasion de s’extraire de son enracinement local pour rayonner sur la scène internationale, conformément à son Projet Scientifique et Culturel.

Introduction
• L’apprentissage en Italie
• Maria Hadfield devient Maria Cosway

Salle 1 | Maria Cosway dans la société anglaise
• La reine de Pall Mall
• À propos des femmes artistes
• Pasquale Paoli et Maria Cosway

Salle 2 | Maria Cosway peintre
• L’influence du cercle romain
• L’amitié avec David
• Exposer à la Royal Academy

Salle 3 | Rupture

Salle 4 | Émancipation: Maria Cosway pédagogue

Amandine Rabier, ed., Maria Cosway (Ghent: Snoeck Publishers, 2024), ISBN: 978-9461619051, €30.

Exhibition | Splendour in Venice: Canaletto and Guardi

Posted in books, catalogues, exhibitions by Editor on May 10, 2024

Francesco Guardi, The Feast of the Ascension in the Piazza San Marco, detail, ca. 1775, oil on canvas
(Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Museum)

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Opening this fall at Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Museum:

Splendor in Venice: Canaletto and Guardi in 18th-Century Painting
Veneza em Festa: Canaletto e Guardi na Pintura do Século XVIII
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, 24 October 2024 — 13 January 2025
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 3 February — 12 May 2025

In 2024, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum welcomes the masters of 18th-century Venetian painting in an exhibition organised in collaboration with the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. After working together on a 2009 exhibition devoted to the French painter Henri Fantin-Latour, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza are joining forces once again to promote an encounter between the works of their respective collections, based on their characteristic affinities. This new project, which starts in Lisbon in autumn 2024 and continues in Madrid in early 2025, takes as its theme 18th-century Venetian painting, with each museum contributing works that echo and complement one another. Canaletto, Guardi, Bellotto, and Tiepolo—creators of some of the most brilliant compositions of their time—will be brought together with other artists for the exhibition. The display will focus on the feste (the celebrations held in La Serenissima), vedute (panoramic views of a specific location), and capricci (fantastical architectures dreamt up by local artists), all of which are naturally festive motifs.

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Note (added 16 August 2025) — The posting was updated to include the dates in Madrid. Also, note that the catalogue is distributed by ACC Art Books and Simon & Schuster.

Exhibition | Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King

Posted in books, catalogues, exhibitions by Editor on May 6, 2024

Now on view at The Wallace Collection:

Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King
The Wallace Collection, London, 10 April — 20 October 2024

Explore the life of the great Sikh leader Ranjit Singh (1780–1839) in this major exhibition

catalogue cover with a painted portrait of Ranjit Singh and his cup-bearerWith an unwavering sense of destiny, Ranjit Singh conquered the Punjab, an area that today encompasses Pakistan, following a period of anarchy caused by decades of Afghan invasions. By the early 19th century, he emerged as the undisputed Maharaja, establishing the influential Sikh Empire. Ranjit Singh’s leadership led to a golden age marked by thriving trade, flourishing arts, and a formidable army. Discover his story through nearly 100 stunning artworks, including jewellery and weaponry from the Sikh Empire drawn from major private and public collections. The exhibition also features historic objects from his court, courtiers, and family, including items owned by the Maharaja and the most famous of his 30 wives, Maharani Jind Kaur. Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King is a unique opportunity to see our remarkable collection of Sikh arms and armour alongside other Sikh artworks for the first time.

From Bloomsbury Press:

Davinder Toor, Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2024), 144 pages, ISBN: 978-1781301265, £20 / $30.

This book, published to coincide with the exhibition at the Wallace Collection, features historic artworks, jewellery, and weaponry from Ranjit Singh’s court, courtiers, and family members. Also highlighted are objects intimately connected with his son, Maharaja Duleep Singh—the deposed boy-king turned country squire who was a favourite of Queen Victoria and father of the prominent suffragette Princess Sophia Duleep Singh. Richly illustrated, this catalogue also reveals the achievements of Ranjit Singh’s European and American officials. Acknowledging Ranjit Singh’s remarkable feat of holding back the threat of a British invasion for four decades, these ‘Firangis’ would nickname their esteemed Sikh sovereign ‘The Napoleon of the East’.

Davinder Toor is a leading figure among a new generation of Sikh, Indian, and Islamic art collectors. He has acted as a consultant to major private collectors, auction houses and institutions such as the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Wallace Collection. He currently lectures on the ‘Arts of the Royal Sikh Courts’ and ‘Sikh Painting and Manuscripts’ for the V&A’s prestigious Arts of Asia course. Both he and objects from the Toor Collection of Sikh Art were featured on the BBC’s Lost Treasures of the Sikh Kingdom (2014) and The Stolen Maharajah: Britain’s Indian Royal (2018) documentaries. The Toor Collection, comprising more than 1,500 works, acts as a lasting legacy to the empire of the Sikhs.

c o n t e n t s

Maps
Foreword
Preface

Prelude to Power — Davinder Toor
Masters of War — Davinder Toor
The Lahore Durbar — Davinder Toor
Firangis — William Dalrymple
Legacies — Davinder Toor

Notes
Bibliography
Image credits

New Book | Liberty, Equality, Fashion

Posted in books by Editor on May 3, 2024

From Norton:

Anne Higonnet, Liberty, Equality, Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution (New York: Norton, 2024), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-0393867954, $35.

Three women led a fashion revolution and turned themselves into international style celebrities.

Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, had nothing left to lose. After surviving incarceration and forced incestuous marriage during the worst violence of the French Revolution of 1789, they dared sartorial revolt. Together, Joséphine and Térézia shed the underwear cages and massive, rigid garments that women had been obliged to wear for centuries. They slipped into light, mobile dresses, cropped their hair short, wrapped themselves in shawls, and championed the handbag. Juliette made the new style stand for individual liberty. The erotic audacity of these fashion revolutionaries conquered Europe, starting with Napoleon. Everywhere a fashion magazine could reach, women imitated the news coming from Paris. It was the fastest and most total change in clothing history. Two centuries ahead of its time, it was rolled back after only a decade by misogynist rumors of obscene extravagance. New evidence allows the real fashion revolution to be told. This is a story for our time: of a revolution that demanded universal human rights, of self-creation, of women empowering each other, and of transcendent glamor.

Anne Higonnet is professor of art history at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she teaches a course called ‘Clothing’. She has received many awards, including Guggenheim and Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellowships.

Exhibition | High Strung: 500 Years of Keyboard Instruments

Posted in books, catalogues, exhibitions, resources by Editor on April 29, 2024

One of the world’s finest musical instrument collections (boasting the world’s oldest cello as well as significant archival resources) is housed on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, in the southeast corner of the state, about 40 miles from Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1973 around Arne Larson’s collection of some 2500 instruments, the National Music Museum recently finished a major renovation and re-installation project. In January, Elizabeth Rembert provided a profile for NPR’s All Things Considered (2 January 2024), and later that month the museum announced the acquisition of five cellos (including 17th- and 18th-century instruments), 27 bows, archival materials, and a Hawaiian guitar previously owned by the late cellist Robert Cancelosi. In addition to the NMM’s regular exhibitions, this special exhibition is on view through the end of the year:

High Strung: Five Centuries of Stringed Keyboard Instruments
National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, March — December 2024

For over 600 years, stringed keyboard instruments have served as repositories for human imagination, science, technology, craft, artistry, and music. They are admired for their stature—and oftentimes stunning beauty—alongside their ability to play both melody and harmony. Keyboard innovation has continuously expanded throughout the world, throughout time. The special exhibition High Strung: Five Centuries of Stringed Keyboard Instruments explores the form, function, and development of keyboard instruments from early harpsichords to the modern piano. The special exhibition brings together nearly 20 keyboard instruments from the NMM’s collections—some of which have never before been exhibited.