American Folk Art Museum

10/17/2026

Cheers to “Locating Girlhood!” 🥂⁠ Last week, we celebrated the exhibition opening by sharing an evening in our galleries with friends and supporters.⁠
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“Locating Girlhood” is on view Wednesday–Sunday, 11:30 AM–6 PM. Admission is always free.⁠
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📸 : Jane Kratochvil

10/15/2026

Join “Locating Girlhood” co-curator Emelie Gevalt in AFAM’s galleries for a special live taping of the podcast “Person Place Thing” with host Randy Cohen.⁠
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“Person Place Thing” is an interview show built on the idea that people are most engaging when they talk about something they care deeply about, rather than themselves. For this episode, Gevalt will speak in detail about three exceptional works of “girlhood” art currently on view at the Museum. The evening will also include a live performance by renowned jazz guitarist Bill Wurtzel.⁠
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Learn more and register: eventbrite.com/e/live-podcast-taping-locating-girlhood-tickets-2002076676233

10/14/2026

Stop scrolling and start stitching with these needle-work-inspired finds at the AFAM Shop. 🧵⁠
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It's a perfect week to stop by the Shop and explore our new exhibition, "Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American ‘Schoolgirl’ Art.”⁠
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The Museum and Shop are open Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Click to shop online: shop.folkartmuseum.org

10/13/2026

We can’t wait to welcome everyone to our galleries this Open House New York Weekend!

10/10/2026

Calling all NYC-area educators!

We invite you to the American Folk Art Museum on October 14 for private tours of our current exhibition, "Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American 'Schoolgirl' Art."

🗓️ Educator Open House
⏰ Wednesday, October 14, 4:30–6 PM

Come meet new colleagues and learn about ways to connect the Museum’s collection to your classroom curriculum!

Free educational resources will be provided, and participants will be eligible for a 10% discount in the AFAM Shop.

Learn more and register: folkartmuseum.org/programs/educator-open-house-10-14/

10/07/2026

In 1809 Massachusetts, 18-year-old Lydia Russell rendered her “Family Record” through a blend of silk, watercolor, and ink on linen.

Frequently relying on the device of a family tree, early American girls repeatedly chose to “place” their kinship connections in natural settings, registering their familial and personal identities not simply through the stitching of a series of names, but through the visual vocabulary of landscape.

The place-based illustration of family structures reinforces their power, establishing lineage as strong, stable, and harmonious—literally part of the natural order of things.

Thank you to the DAR Museum for generously loaning us this piece and more for “Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American ‘Schoolgirl’ Art”—opening this Friday, October 9 at the American Folk Art Museum.

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🧵 Lydia Russell (1791–1868), “Family Record.” West Cambridge (now Arlington), Massachusetts, 1809. Silk, watercolor, and ink on linen, 24 x 19 1/4 in. DAR Museum, Washington, DC, 88.40.

10/01/2026

Antiques And The Arts Weekly has published a preview of our upcoming exhibition, "Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American 'Schoolgirl' Art."

As co-curator Emelie Gevalt told them, "What excited us about this project was the opportunity to drill down into the ‘why’ of girlhood artworks. We could have focused on any number of key questions, but the one that most captured our curiosity was the theme of place, which surfaces over and over again in these objects across time.”

Read their preview here:

NEW YORK CITY — Early scholarly study on early American needlework and other forms of student artworks has, historically, focused primarily on the “Who, what, where and when,” questions that established a rigorous classification based upon attribution, schools, teachers, regional styles and ch...

09/30/2026

Join us for our October programs—online and at the Museum.
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Our “Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American ‘Schoolgirl’ Art” programming begins on Wednesday, October 14 at 1 PM, with a virtual tour led by the exhibition’s co-curators.⁠
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Click for full details, including how to register: folkartmuseum.org/programs/upcoming
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🧵 Attributed to Faith Trumbull (1743-1775), “Needlework Picture,” Boston and Lebanon, Connecticut, 1754, Silk, mica, and gouache on silk, 23 1/8 x 54 in., Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, 1974.99.0.⁠
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🧵 Juliana Carpenter (c. 1810-?), Map of Two Hemispheres, Homer, New York, 1825, Watercolor on paper with ink on paper and watercolor on ivory, 18 1/4 x 27 in., Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Libraries, Chicago, Gift of Conrad M. and Lisa G. Chanzit

09/28/2026

“Cigarmaker, Creator, Healer & Man.” That’s how Felipe Jesus Consalvos signed some of his works—none of which were shared publicly in his lifetime.⁠
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Consalvos made astonishingly complex collages featuring cigar labels and a distinctive caustic wit. In his colliding cutouts, he placed pinup girls alongside the heads of political leaders, anatomical illustrations, and advertising slogans, playfully and subversively intertwining American icons with the detritus of consumerism. Scholars have drawn parallels between his pieces and the collage work of surrealism and the absurdist political discontent of dada.⁠
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Born outside of Havana, Cuba, in 1891, Consalvos immigrated to Miami around 1920 and spent time in New York before settling in Philadelphia. He regularly worked as a roller in cigar factories (where he likely sourced the labels that adorn his art). A collection of over 750 of Consalvos’s collages were acquired at a garage sale in the 1980s, roughly twenty years after his death. The first exhibition of his work was held in 2004 at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia.⁠
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We’re proud to recognize Felipe Jesus Consalvos’s work and legacy in honor of .⁠
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✂️ Felipe Jesus Consalvos (1891–c. 1960), “Untitled.” New York, New York, United States, 1920–1960. Paper, cigar bands, postage stamps collaged on wallpaper sample book page, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 " (52.7 x 47.6 cm). Gift of Audrey B. Heckler, 2025.14.27.⁠
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✂️ Felipe Jesus Consalvos (1891–c. 1960), “Diplomatic adventure.” Miami, Florida, United States, 1920–1950. Mixed media collage on photograph (double-sided), 9 1/8 x 11 3/8 " (23.2 x 28.9 cm). Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2019.20.3a,b.⁠
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✂️ Felipe Jesus Consalvos (1891–c. 1960), “Untitled.” Miami, Florida, United States, n.d. Cigar labels, newspaper and magazine cutouts, vintage photograph (possibly hand painted), 7 1/4 x 9 1/4 " (18.4 x 23.5 cm). Gift of Stephen Blank in honor of Lenore Blank, 2019.21.2.