Collecting Wonders

Dr. Claudia Swan, the inaugural Mark Steinberg Weil professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis

Beginning in the 16th century in Europe, collectors assembled Wunderkammern, so-called cabinets of curiosity designed to evince wonder and awe. These collections housed weird and sometimes wild conjunctions of the natural and the man-made, the local and the exotic. Claudia Swan, the inaugural Mark Steinberg Weil professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis, will discuss how objects in curiosity cabinets were collected, exchanged, stolen, organized, and valued.

Tickets for the on-site program are free, but may be reserved in person at the Museum’s Information Centers or through MetroTix. All tickets reserved through MetroTix incur a service charge; the service charge is waived for tickets reserved at the Museum.

This lecture will also be livestreamed for free via Zoom and will have automated closed captions. Livestream attendees must register to receive the Zoom link. To register for the livestream click here.