American Women Printmakers

Beginning in the 1850s American women entered printmaking professions contributing to society’s acceptance of the graphic arts as a career for women. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1887 exhibition, Women Etchers of America, was the first comprehensive display of its kind, followed in 1888 by an enlarged more comprehensive show at the Union League Club in New York. The Graphic Arts section of the Ohio Valley Centenial Exposition in Cincinnati in 1888 included women. These exhibitions recognized a large number of American women who had become professional artists and produced notable work suitable for museum acknowledgement.  Among the 1887 and 1888 exhibiters were Cincinnatian’s Mary Louise McLaughlin and Martha Scudder Twachtman.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.