Ca' d'Oro, Venice
Albumen print, after 1895 restoration

The earliest plans for the Gardner Museum incorporate many elements of this famous Venetian facade. Mrs. Gardner bought eight stone balconies which were once installed on the Ca' d'Oro.

Isabella Stewart Gardner loved travel, and, like many upper-class Americans, spent much of her time away from home. She carefully documented over twenty years of travel through Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 28 scrapbooks she compiled images and recollections of these experiences. Filled with photographs, with ephemera from hotels and restaurants, with ticket stubs and pressed flowers, and even with her own sketches, these books are themselves works of art, and they reveal much about her attitudes. Her photographs of important works of art can be considered a wish-list for a future museum. She may not yet have consciously decided on making a museum, but the urge to collect and arrange was already strong. Her trips brought her into contact with exotic cultures and, most importantly, with the past. The museum's architecture and whimsical arrangement reflect these experiences.

Pair of glass bottles
engraved with ferns

Each bottle contains sand from Egypt collected by Mrs. Gardner in 1875: one from in front of the Pyramids at Giza; the other from under the Sphinx.

Egypt and Palestine, 1874-75
Travel scrapbook of Isabella Stewart Gardner

Mrs. Gardner chronicled her reactions to the mix of religions and cultures she encountered in the Middle East. She carefully observed local people, and commented on their appearance, customs, and clothing. She also recorded her delight at seeing the famous sites: the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the colossal statues of Ramses II. The left page displays an old example of Coptic script; the right page shows one of her many watercolor sketches.

Japan, 1883
Travel scrapbook of Isabella Stewart Gardner

On these pages, Mrs. Gardner has assembled an assortment of souvenirs: a paper puppet, a decorative fan, a photograph, a decorative silk strip, and pressed leaves - positioned above images of the trees from which they came.

October 31, 2001-January 1, 2002

Last fall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presented a new series of works by British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, who use grass as a photographic medium. Ackroyd and Harvey's "photographs" cast in grass are created through a photosynthetic print process. Instead of black and white, the images are shades of green and yellow. Their exhibition, entitled Presence and organized by Gardner Museum Contemporary Curator Pieranna Cavalchini, was part of an artist-in-residence program that enables artists to study the Gardner's preeminent collection and visitors to experience the work of emerging talent and ideas.