Reynolda House Museum of American Art Offers “An American Story” Class to the Public for the First Time

Elizabeth Chew, Ph.D.

"WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (April 14, 2015) – Reynolda House will offer to the public in May a class previously offered only to museum docents. “Reynolda: An American Story” will be held Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in May, starting May 5. The course will be co-taught by Elizabeth Chew, Ph.D., the museum’s Betsy Main Babcock Director of the Curatorial and Education Division, and members of the museum’s curatorial, program and education staff.

This lecture course will examine the Reynolda estate and the Reynolds family through the lens of 20th-century American history, considering topics like tobacco, the post-Civil War “New South,” the American Country Place Era, women’s history, progressive agriculture and ways that Reynolda reflects social changes of the 20^th century.

“The full story of Reynolda is an American story and not merely a regional one,” says Chew. “This is the course for anyone interested in how the histories of Reynolda and Winston-Salem connect with the larger picture of American history.”

Chew added that the course will bring together numerous important aspects of post-Civil War and 20^th-century American history and culture including industry, race, women’s education, philanthropy, and many other topics.

Classes will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, May 5-May 21. Registration is $150 per person, or $120 for members of the museum. Advance registration is required and available online at reynoldahouse.org. 

Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation’s premier American art museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart among its collection.  Affiliated with Wake Forest University, Reynolda House features changing exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings and other events.  The museum is located at 2250 Reynolda Rd. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the historic 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150. Connect at Facebook.com/rhmaa or @CurateReynolda."

- A Press Release