Apron Strings: Ties to the Past

Apron Strings: Ties to the Past November 12, 2019- January 5, 2020 Featuring fifty-one aprons from the early 1900s through the present, this exhibition chronicles changing attitudes toward women and domestic work. Elaborately embroidered aprons of delicate cotton, for example, were worn by well-heeled women of the 1920s. In contrast, the Depression and war years of the 1930s and 1940s inspired sturdy, calico bib aprons. The post-war 1940s and 1950s—the June Cleaver era—stand out as the acknowledged heyday of the apron, when commercial and intricately hand-decorated aprons flourished as symbols of family and motherhood. A Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and The National Endowment for the Arts. Museum Hours: Sun 1-5; Tue-Sat 10-5