LECTURE | The Art of Collecting

What drives someone to seek out a two-hundred-year-old sampler—and what does that impulse tell us about who we are? Join textile historian Ned Lazaro, Associate Curator of Textiles and Costumes at The Wadsworth Atheneum and former curator of textiles at Historic Deerfield for a moderated discussion on the history of collecting schoolgirl samplers and other forms of needlepoint in the United States. From early needlework to printed broadsides, discover how these rescued objects shaped our understanding of material culture—and why they still matter.

Tickets: $15 |$12.50 Virtual | $10 Members

This lecture will be offered in person and via Zoom.

*Zoom link will be provided in advance of the lecture to Members and Virtual ticket holders.


Ned Lazaro | David E. (Ned) Lazaro is the Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. He manages a collection of roughly 7,500 items, including costumes and textiles ranging from Egyptian artifacts to contemporary fashion. Lazaro specializes in interpreting fashion history, including 18th-to-20th-century deportment.

You may also like the following events from Webb Deane Stevens Museum:

• Next Saturday, 7th March, 10:00 am, WORKSHOP | A Spring Pruning Primer: Roses, Fruit Trees, Evergreens, Perennials, and Grasses in Wethersfield
• Next Saturday, 7th March, 07:00 pm, Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden Women of Delftware WDS Book Talk with Genevieve Wheeler Brown in Wethersfield
• This April, 9th April, 07:00 pm, LECTURE | America’s Tapestry: Fiber Arts & The Revolution in Wethersfield

Also check out other Arts events in Wethersfield, Nonprofit events in Wethersfield.