Scholars believe that women were the pottery makers of the Ancestral Puebloan culture. The graceful form and careful corrugated style of this jar, perhaps intended to look like a woven basket, attest to the artistry of its maker. This pot was given to the MFA by another female ceramist, Laura Andreson, who was a major figure in the mid-20th century studio pottery movement on the West Coast.

Not on view

In Puebloan society pottery making was a woman’s craft up to the late 20th century, and techniques passed down to the next generation through the maternal line. Although this elegant water jar is unsigned, it has been attributed to SaraFina Gutierrez Tafoya based on her family’s knowledge. SaraFina, who was born in the 1860s, was preceded by several generations of potters and succeeded by at least two after her, including distinguished Native American potter Margaret Tafoya.

Level LG, Gallery LG34
Native North American Art

This cosmetics container features women working their wool, a major responsibility of ancient Greek women, and bears the inscription “Lysandra gave [it] to Lysimachis,” which suggests that it was a grave offering from one woman to another, perhaps a relative. The only surviving evidence of women in the Athenian pottery industry is on an Athenian vase with a workshop scene of a woman painting a large vessel. The involvement of women in Athenian pottery has long been suspected, however, by some scholars. One wonders whether this container was made by a woman.

Not on view

This scroll and the one on the next slide tell the story of a young noblewoman’s love for a man that she first encountered in a dream. The monochrome ink technique of the illustrations is known as “white drawing” (hakubyō), thought to have developed in the 13th century. By the 16th century, this style became associated with amateur women painters, ladies of the Kyoto nobility who used it to illustrate classical Japanese poetry and fiction, often in small-scale works such as this one. Each less than six inches high, these tiny scrolls were likely a private treasure for the artist and her friends.

Not on view

First popular in the 1930s in southern Nigeria, this style of indigo-dyed cloth, Adire Eleko, is made by and for women. The complex technique of indigo dyeing was passed on from mother to daughter for many generations of Yoruba women, until it became a specialist craft. A woman painted the pattern with cassava flour paste to protect the cloth from dye before turning it over to an older woman who was experienced in the complex chemistry of maintaining indigo dye baths. Once dyed and rinsed, the painted areas create the lighter patterns on the cloth, which was worn as a long wrapped skirt.

Level 1, Gallery 171
African Art

A masterpiece of nomadic weaving and an extraordinary work of abstract design, this rug was made in the Fars province of southwest Iran in the late 19th century. The diamond motif is a favorite among Luri nomadic weavers; this unidentified woman pared down her composition to two large diamonds in an arrangement of colors that is both elegant and simple, putting her personal stamp and soul on this ancient design. 

Not on view

Fanciful headdresses made of feathers, artificial flowers, ribbons, and tinsel were a standard part of a woman’s evening dress in 1850s Paris, made to trail over smooth, swept-back hairstyles and down the nape of the neck. This lusciously naturalistic example, decorated with artificial cherries, strawberries, grapes, plums, flower blossoms, and coral, was most likely commissioned by Bostonian Annie Lawrence Roche, the donor’s maternal grandmother, when she lived in France from 1850 to 1853. The young women who created these confections labored without recognition in less-than-ideal urban workshop conditions.

Not on view

The names of the woman or women who made this fundraising quilt, created to promote the women’s right to vote, are probably embroidered into the bars of its flag design alongside the names of their neighbors, people mostly from farming and working-class families in northwestern Indiana. Each person donated a small sum, then the finished quilt was auctioned at a fair or large gathering to raise money for the cause. With its rows of nearly 300 names, including that of Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906), the quilt calls to mind the thousands of signatures on petitions sent by women’s suffrage groups to members of state legislatures a century ago.

Not on view