Furniture, History and Feminism: a Suite Américaine Panel Discussion
July 24 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Free
Furniture, History and Feminism: a Suite Américaine Panel Discussion | Fri. July 24, 2026 | 6:30 – 7:30 pm ET | In-person
Join us for a panel discussion exploring the history of American furniture making through objects created for women from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. Using furniture as a lens to examine gender, labor, and artistic expression, the conversation will consider how domestic objects reflected and shaped women’s roles in early America.
The discussion centers on three furniture forms that inspired the exhibition BA Harrington: Suite Américanine: dower chests, writing desks, and sewing tables. Each of these objects occupied a distinct place in a woman’s life. Dower chests safeguarded textiles, clothing, and household goods that accompanied a woman into marriage; writing desks provided a space for correspondence, record-keeping, and intellectual engagement; and sewing tables supported the textile work expected of women and often served as a measure of domestic skill and accomplishment. Together, these forms reveal the complex ways furniture functioned not only as utilitarian objects but also as markers of identity, status, education, and gender expectations.
Panelists will examine the cultural significance and craftsmanship of these furnishings, considering the woodworkers who designed and built them, the social customs that informed their use, and the women whose daily lives were intertwined with them. The conversation will also explore the paradox embedded within these objects: although they were frequently commissioned, designed, and constructed by men, they were created to organize, contain, and sometimes conceal the labor, creativity, and personal worlds of women.
Through a feminist lens, the panel will connect these historical forms to BA Harrington’s contemporary practice. Historically designed and built by men, these furnishings often concealed women’s labor and creativity. In Suite Américanine, Harrington transforms them into structures that reveal rather than hide textile work, bringing women’s craftsmanship to the forefront and inviting viewers to reconsider whose labor and stories have been valued.
Bringing together perspectives from history, material culture, and contemporary practice, this conversation offers an opportunity to reflect on the enduring relationship between furniture, gender, and creative expression across centuries of American history.
Panelists:
Justina Barrett
Justina Barrett serves as the Chief Learning and Engagement Officer at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s largest archives of historical documents, founded in 1824. In this role, she oversees all public programming, K-12 educational activities, and external engagement efforts, including communications and partnerships. She works to showcase and make accessible HSP’s collection of over 23 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images. She brings to her role over two decades of museum education experience in art museums and historic houses. Justina earned a bachelor’s degree in history with teaching certification from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree in early American material culture from the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware.
BA Harrington
Since 2012, Harrington has been a Professor of Woodworking in the Department of Art and Design, and Director of the Wood Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She continues to write essays, speak at conferences, and build sculptural work in reference to early American furniture forms. She has held Windgate Artist Residencies at San Diego State University and SUNY Purchase and was a recipient of the Center for Craft’s inaugural Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship. Each year this substantial mid-career grant is awarded to two artists who are revising, reclaiming, and advancing the history of craft through their work. Harrington graduated from the Cabinet & Furnituremaking program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. She also holds an M.F.A. in Wood and an M.A. In Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Christopher Storb
Christopher Storb is a furniture conservator, woodworking historian, and instructor of joinery, woodturning, and woodcarving. His expertise is in the history of woodworking technologies, processes, and materials.
This event is free to the public. The Museum for Art in Wood interprets, nurtures, and champions creative engagement and expansion of art, craft, and design in wood to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of it. A suggested donation of $5 per person enables us to provide programs and exhibitions throughout the year.
Questions? Please contact Katie Sorenson, Director of Outreach and Communications at katie@museumforartinwood.org.