Program and Workshop Schedule

Hub of the Jewelry World: Providence, Rhode Island and Attleboro, Massachusetts and the History of American Costume Jewelry

Note that this event is at Belmont Art Gallery, NOT LCC.

Laura Johnson is a Curator at Historic New England www.historicnewengland.org. She is a specialist in American material life, particularly fashion and adornment. Laura is the author of Keepsakes and Treasures: stories from Historic New England’s jewelry collection. Her exhibitions include Mementos: Jewelry of Life and Love and Head to Toe: hats and shoe fashions from the collection of Historic New England. She received her Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from the University of Delaware and an M.A. in Early American Culture from the Winterthur Program.

For more than a century Providence, Rhode Island and Attleboro, Massachusetts formed the ‘hub of the jewelry world.’ Join Historic New England Curator Laura Johnson for an illustrated talk and hands-on discussion of the creative, dynamic forces that made the region a major producer of the world’s costume jewelry. Hear stories of the women and men who designed, modeled, and assembled the affordable and stylish goods that women around the world continue to wear every day while handling examples from a private collection.