Spanning culture, geography, and time, women hold changing positions in society. These standings, and communal perception of them, often become the subject of art and influence a woman’s opportunity to be a professional artist in her era. Artists depict women like any other subject—through observation, familiarity, or one’s relationship to the ideas and conventions of the day. 
In this new selection of works from the Diamond M collection, the Helen DeVitt Jones Curator of Art, Tracee Robertson, focuses on the stories and artworks of women, which feature not only female artists, but also the abundant imagery of women depicted in the collection’s works of art. Included are intricate sculptures from the collection’s 19th and 20th century Chinese and Japanese ivory carvings. 
Imagery of women often communicates the ideals of womanhood—the qualities, morals, and activities promoted as appropriate to a woman in time and place. Art not only champions society’s ideals but also reveals broader realities. Come see themes of leisure, society, marriage, motherhood, work, portraiture, and literary tales, on view through 2027. 

About the Diamond M Collection

The Diamond M Collection encompasses 351 works of art and was developed from 1936 to the early 1970s, through the vision and pursuits of C. T. and Claire McLaughlin, followed by select acquisitions by the Diamond M Foundation. The collection was displayed in the Diamond M Museum in Snyder, Texas beginning in 1964, and the Foundation donated the collection to the Museum of Texas Tech University in 1993. 
The collection holds 19th and 20th century American art and illustrations; works by a small number of European artists; and objects in jade and ivory from China and Japan. The collection features 19 paintings by famed illustrator Newell Convers Wyeth of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, whose illustrations accompanied such literary works as The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne and The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. 

Ways to engage with this exhibition 

Grow Your Knowledge

The Illustrator’s Book Club 
Reading The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackery 
Illustrated by Howard Pyle 

The Newcomes will be read in serial, as it was originally presented in Harper’s Magazine from 1853 to 1855. Reading begins in November, just as the first chapters were originally released in November 1853.

Start Reading

Studio 360

Studio 360 is a full-circle, hands-on experience that combines art styles, art history, and art media, inspired by works of art on view at the Museum.

Art of Seeing Tours 

Groups of 8 or more may schedule a private Art of Seeing tour during Museum operating hours.