Natalie Dykstra on "Chasing Beauty The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner"

-- Dykstra discusses her book "Chasing Beauty", which details Isabella Stewart Gardner’s friendships, awe-inspiring world travels, and love of collecting beautiful things. --
Recorded 1 April 2024 at Massachusetts Historical Society.
Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Museum rose from Boston’s Fens at the turn of the 20th century. Its treasures encompassed not only masterwork paintings but tapestries, rare books, prints, porcelains, and fine furniture. Natalie Dykstra's new book, Chasing Beauty, illuminates the fascinating ways the eponymous museum and its holdings can be seen as a kind of memoir, dazzling and haunting, displayed per Isabella’s wishes in the exact placements she initially curated.
Born in 1840 to a privileged New York family, Isabella Stewart married Boston Brahmin Jack Gardner as she turned 20. She was misunderstood by Boston’s insular society and suffered the death of her only child, not yet two years old. But in time came friendships, awe-inspiring world travels, and a love of collecting beautiful things with a keen eye and competitive pace. All these were balm for loss. Join Natalie Dykstra in conversation with Catherine Allgor as they discuss Chasing Beauty-a tale of beauty and loss, grit, and American self-invention.
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