Tour of "Conspicuous Consumption"

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” Pithy but apropos for fashionable, Victorian-era Arkansans who used their parlors as exhibit halls for their most valuable objects. In this hybrid public/private space, they donned their most fashionable clothing, displayed their fanciest furniture and laid out their finest china. By mid-century, converging commercial forces created an environment primed for conspicuous consumption. In the parlor and on the street, items like hand-painted miniature portraits, day dresses of patterned silk and the flash of a gold pocket watch increased the social prestige of both middle and working class adults.

Join us for a curator-led tour of this exhibit and catch a glimpse of some of the exceptional objects made, purchased—and flaunted!—by Arkansans during the Victorian era.