A Museum of Their Own

By Wilhelmina Cole Holladay
Abbeville Press, $50.00, 240 pages

During a trip to the Netherlands in the early 1970′s, Holladay and her husband discovered a 17th-century female Flemish painter they both admired. After their return to the United States, they tried to find more about Clara Peeters, but found her not included in any art history texts. From there, they discovered that there were very few, if any, women included in art reference books, and highly under represented in most  museums. Soon, they began collecting works from women artists throughout history, and eventually was encouraged to donate them and their time, to the creation of the first museum focusing on women. Located not that far from the White House, the National Museum of Women in the Arts has been open since 1987, and has led the drive for equal representation of female artists in other museums, exhibits and art reference books.

A Museum of Their Own is the story of the National Museum’s beginnings, the people involved, the collection housed there, and the exhibitions it has hosted. The book is almost equally split between the reproduced art, and the history of the museum. There are plenty of pictures, both of the museum itself, and the many pieces of art within its collection. The art covers hundreds of years of women’s artistic endeavors, in many fields, through the primary focus is paintings. The text is chatty and fun to read, with lots of interesting insights to the museum’s history. Museum is a well done, long overdue book celebrating the many female artists throughout history.