Recovering Women’s Legacies: Part Four

Part Four: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe and A’Lelia Walker

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe: Securing Her Legacy in the Cultural Landscape of the Gilded Age
Margaret R. Laster, Consultant, Center for the History of Collecting

This presentation examines the choices and strategies Wolfe (1828−1887) employed as she amassed the materials of cultural currency that established her as a prominent tastemaker and artistic arbiter in New York and Newport.

A’Lelia Walker’s Harlem Renaissance Salon
A’Lelia Bundles, author of The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance and On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker, board member of the National Archives Foundation

A’Lelia Walker is best known as the daughter of hair care entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C. J. Walker, but she created her own legacy as a supporter of the arts during the 1920s. Her three homes—on 136th Street and on Edgecombe Avenue in Manhattan and at Villa Lewaro in Irvington—were gathering places for Harlem Renaissance writers, artists, actors, musicians and socialites.

As centers for art historical research, the WPI and the Frick are dedicated to promoting the accessibility of art historical information and to encouraging new avenues of exploration among scholars.

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