Virtual Lecture: Susie Barstow and Her Circle: The Women of the Hudson River School

Celebrate Women’s History Month with a deep dive into Hudson River School artist Susie Barstow!

A prolific artist, Susie M. Barstow (1836–1923) captured on canvas and paper the beauty and awe she experienced in the American landscape from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. However, Barstow and many of her female colleagues, painting in the style of the Hudson River School, were omitted from the art historical canon, until now. Dr. Nancy Siegel’s lecture examines the life and career of this fascinating artist through vast and previously unknown archival materials. This rare occasion to mine the depths of an artist’s life through paintings, letters, photographs, and sketchbooks provides a unique opportunity to present a comprehensive study that is both art-historically significant and visually stunning. Barstow was featured in the 2023-24 touring exhibition Women Reframe American Landscape: Susie Barstow & Her Circle / Contemporary Practices, which originated at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site (Catskill, NY).

Nancy Siegel is Professor of Art History and Culinary History at Towson University and specializes in American landscape studies, underrepresented women artists of the 19th century, print culture, and culinary history of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her most recent book, Susie M. Barstow: Redefining the Hudson River School, complemented the 2023-24 touring exhibition she co-curated, Women Reframe American Landscape: Susie Barstow & Her Circle/Contemporary Practices. This exhibit built upon her 2010 exhibition, Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School. Dr. Siegel is the author/editor of numerous publications related to nineteenth-century American art and culture and is currently completing the manuscript Political Appetites: Revolution, Taste, and Culinary Activism in the Early American Republic for 2026.