Introduction

This exhibition will focus on Luisa May Alcott’s Little Women, illustrating how, although it is often considered a children’s morality story, the novel actually presents much more radical and subversive themes, asking readers to question the customs and traditions that they are used to. The questions posed by Little Women are ones that we still have not fully answered today, over one hundred years after the novel’s publication. The exhibition will feature a first edition of the novel, illustrated by Luisa’s sister May Alcott, to reveal how the Alcott sisters worked together to uncover the value that women, art, and travel can offer to society.

The novel, and materials that surrounded it just after its publication, suggest that women deserve a more meaningful, serious, and independent place in society. This idea is demonstrated by the March sisters in the novel, who readers see transform from girls into strong, ambitious, and even feminist women, highlighting the injustice of oppressive gender roles along the way. Jo March, the most radical and independent sister, can be considered a feminist because of the way she attempts to reject her gender role throughout the novel. She rejects a marriage proposal from Laurie, resents her responsibility to act “ladylike,” and achieves success and financial independence through her literary skills. Jo’s sister Amy can also be seen as having feminist tendencies, as she grows to be responsible, determined, and self-reliant throughout the novel. In fact, she even gives her male friend and future husband (Laurie) advice to start acting more mature. The achievements and success that readers see from the March sisters as they develop into budding feminists imply that strong and independent women can be beneficial to society and are deserving of respect.

Similarly, Little Women and other related materials also provide evidence that art has more value than simply looking beautiful. The illustrations contained throughout the novel, as well as the presence of artistic aspirations among the March sisters (Jo’s literary skills and Amy’s desire to be an artist), suggest that art is more than a fun hobby. Art plays a large part in the lives of the March sisters, and, it seems, helps turn them into the successful and liberated women that they become. Thus, the Alcotts reveal that art has value and power. By illuminating the value that both art and women have, the Alcotts ask readers to think about these things in new, different, and more significant ways, an idea that perhaps we could still benefit from today.