Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters

Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain:  Fol. 2v, January - Snow Landscape

The Adoration of the Magi

View of Toledo

Winter Landscape near a Town with Kolf Players

Winter Landscape

Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast

Wintry mountains

The Dutch Whaling Fleet

The Eruption of Vesuvius

Frost Fair on a Frozen River with Ships

Dijkdoorbraak bij Gouda, 1776

Winter Scene

IJsberg te Ochten, 24 januari 1789

IJsschotsen op de Maas, januari 1809

After the Storm

Ruïne van een boerderij in Friesland, 1825

Santa Trinità dei Monti in the Snow

Buffalo Chase in Snowdrifts, Indians Pursuing on Snowshoes

Morning after the Snow at Koishikawa in Edo (Koishikawa yuki no ashita),  from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)

Valley of Aosta: Snowstorm, Avalanche, and Thunderstorm

Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake (Ōhashi Atake no yūdachi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)

Mer de Glace, gezien vanaf la Flagère, Savoye, Franse Alpen

Race Horses

From the beginning of the 14th century to the second half of the 19th century, many parts of the Earth experienced a colder climate and, more generally, increased variability in temperature and precipitation. This so-called Little Ice Age1 was primarily triggered by frequent explosive volcanic eruptions.2 The sulfur dioxide released by volcanoes forms droplets of sulfuric acid that partially shield the Earth's surface from sunlight, influencing the global atmospheric circulation for up to three years.3 Other factors, such as periods of reduced solar radiation4 and changes in ocean currents,5 also contributed. In some regions, winter temperatures declined and glaciers expanded, but rather than being defined by ice, this age was characterized by widespread instability. Droughts or heavy rainfall caused crop failures, leading to famine, then to social unrest and wars.6 The Norse settlement in Greenland disappeared,7 the Chinese Ming dynasty fell,8 and some Native American cultures shifted their focus from agriculture toward hunting and trading.9 With the Little Ice Age, humankind began to see climate not as eternally stable or merely passive, but as an agent within human history. Climate and its changes claimed our attention. Art recorded the events of the Little Ice Age and turned them into secular visual tropes appreciated by the emergent bourgeois class10: clouded skies,11 snowfalls and sudden rains, floods and frozen rivers,12 storms and shipwrecks, icebergs and glaciers, volcanic eruptions, and red skies due to the optical effects of volcanic aerosols in the atmosphere.13 This era also produced the earliest known representations of snowy winters in Western art,14 first in Books of Hours,15 then in the still-allegorical works16 by Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525–1569) and their copies (often made by Bruegel’s first son),17 and finally in the realistic landscape paintings of the Dutch Golden Age (1588–1672).18 This collection explores the impact of climate on visual art, both in the West and in Asia, throughout the Little Ice Age. It also highlights how the development of landscape painting as an autonomous genre in Western art ran in parallel with our first encounters with climate change and with our understanding of climate as something endowed with its own agency. — 1. Collet, Dominik, et al. “The Little Ice Age: The History and Future of a Traveling Concept.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, vol. 16, no. 5, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.70023. Accessed 1 August 2026. 2. Miller, Gifford H., et al. “Abrupt Onset of the Little Ice Age Triggered by Volcanism and Sustained by Sea-Ice/Ocean Feedbacks.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 39, no. 2, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050168. Accessed 31 July 2026. 3. Wolfe, Jason. “Volcanos and Climate Change.” NASA Science, 5 September 2000, https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/volcanos-and-climate-change/. Accessed 5 August 2026. 4. Owens, Mathew J. “The Maunder Minimum and the Little Ice Age: An Update From Recent Reconstructions and Climate Simulations.” Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2017034. Accessed 2 August 2026. 5. Broecker, Wallace S. “Was a Change in Thermohaline Circulation Responsible for the Little Ice Age?” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 97, no. 4, 2000, pp. 1339–1342. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.4.1339. Accessed 4 August 2026. 6. Kaniewski, David. “A Climate of Conflict: How the Little Ice Age Sparked Rebellions and Revolutions Across Europe.” Global and Planetary Change, vol. 254, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.105038. Accessed 5 August 2026. 7. Jackson, Rowan, and Andrew Dugmore, “Interpreting Collapse in Norse Greenland: Why Similar Data Produces Different Conclusions.” Heritage, vol. 8, no. 8, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8080293. Accessed 1 August 2026. 8. Brook, Timothy. The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China. Princeton University Press, 2023. 9. Drass, Richard R. “Corn, Beans and Bison: Cultivated Plants and Changing Economies of the Late Prehistoric Villagers on the Plains of Oklahoma and Northwest Texas.” Plains Anthropologist, vol. 53, no. 205, 2008, pp, 7–31. https://doi.org/10.1179/pan.2008.003. Accessed 27 August 2026. 10. Metzger, Alexis. “Enjoying the Ice. Dutch Winter Landscapes, Weather and Climate in the Golden Age, 17th Century.” Climate of the Past Discussions [pre-print]. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2020-81. Accessed 4 August 2026. 11. Neuberger, Hans. “Climate in Art.” Weather, vol. 25, no. 2, 1970, pp. 46–56, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1970.tb03232.x. Accessed 20 May 2026. 12. Lockwood, Mike, et al. “Frost Fairs, Sunspots and the Little Ice Age.” Astronomy &amp; Geophysics, vol. 58, no. 2, 2017, pp. 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/astrogeo/atx057. Accessed 30 July 2026. 13. Zerefos, C. S. “Atmospheric Effects of Volcanic Eruptions as Seen by Famous Artists and Depicted in Their Paintings.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, vol. 7, no. 15, 2007, pp. 4027–4042. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-4027-2007. Accessed 5 August 2026. 14. Robinson, Peter J. “Ice and Snow in Paintings of Little Ice Age Winters.” Weather, vol. 60, no. 2, 2005, pp. 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1256/wea.164.03. Accessed 6 May 2026. 15. Metzger, Alexis. “Premières neiges : le paysage d’hiver dans les enluminures.” Projets de paysage : revue scientifique sur la conception et l'aménagement de l'espace, vol. 8, no. 1, 2012. https://doi.org/10.4000/paysage.15796. Accessed 30 July 2026. 16. Bauer, Linda, and George Bauer. “The Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 66, no. 1, 1984, pp. 145–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1984.10788142. Accessed 3 August 2026. 17. Oberthaler, Elke, et al. Bruegel. London, Thames &amp; Hudson, 2018. 18. Burroughs, W.J. “Winter Landscapes and Climate Change.” Weather, vol. 36, no. 12, 1981, pp. 352–357. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1981.tb05362.x. Accessed 16 June 2026.

When Art Met Climate Change: The Little Ice Age

Pomander

Pomander in the Shape of a Ship

Locket Pendant, Possibly a Pomander, in Shape of Shell with Animal-Headed Cap Flanked by a Small Bird on Sides

Portrait of a Woman with a Pomander

Toothpick/Pomander

Monkey Pomander

Scent Bottle

Scent bottle

Handkerchief

Kerchief

Zakdoek van kloskant met rechte en gebogen lijnen

Zakdoek met een rand van gemengde kant met gearceerde rocailles

holder, posy

Nosegay

Valentine - Mechanical nosegay (tussy mussy)

Portret van een onbekend vrouw met een ruiker in de hand

For centuries before germ theory, miasma theory1 was the dominant explanation for contagion. Greek for pollution, a miasma was a noxious vapor rising from rot, refuse, swamps, sewage, the dead. Foul odor was evidence of corrupted air, and corrupted air caused illness. A stench was a potentially lethal assailant. The intuition was not entirely wrong. As we well know, some pathogens do travel through air. From the medieval period until germ theory displaced miasma in the late nineteenth century, Europeans believed, quite literally, that a pleasant scent could neutralize whatever threat air carried. Regardless of the validity of that belief, the fact remained that masking a foul odor created distance from a fetid source, a remove from filth and corruption, however psychological or symbolic. A sense of having some control was likely a relief itself. The objects in this collection functioned as interfaces between the self and the atmosphere. A seventeenth-century silver pomander takes the form of a skull; its cranium hinges open onto six lettered compartments for aromatics like cinnamon and clove. It was a memento mori that was simultaneously a death ward. A gold pomander shaped as a ship would contain ambergris, musk, and spices that ships would carry. Precious cargo worth wrapping in gold. A rock crystal pomander displays its aromatics through polished stone, its gold mounts wrapped in enameled snakes, symbols of healing coiled around the cure. A miniature, 1840, Dutch, pail-shaped, silver pomander with a pierced lid was carried to church against close air and long sermons. By then, the fear had faded, but the habit endured because a scented accessory was after all a pleasant thing to have. There are many ways in which these practices bore socio-economic legibility. The materials and refinement of a portable scent disclosed its user's class. The wealthy carried civet in engraved silver; the less privileged pressed a handkerchief dosed with scented vinegar to the face or held common herbs in a small bouquet known as a nosegay. This practice evolved and expanded. A silver filigree holder turned a handful of simple herbs and flowers into fancy jewelry that could carry a message.2 Venetian-style glass scent bottles mounted in pewter provided the desired function along with the look of luxury at a lower price. The aromatics themselves were products of global trade, tying private comfort to extraction and empire. A Mughal crystal vial sprinkled an attar of roses from a perforated lid. At court, perfume was refinement and hospitality, offered to others rather than clutched against them. The fragrance was for everyone in the room, not the nose of a single individual. Europe eventually came around to this understanding. Germ theory ended miasma, but not the reflex beneath it. We still buy the smell of lemon and pine as proof of a clean house. We still smell something pleasant and call it healthy. Even when scent does nothing, it does something. These objects can be thought of as the ancestors to the intuition behind a massive and enduring multicultural phenomenon. ——— 1. "Miasma Theory." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory. Accessed on April 1, 2026.2. "Nosegay." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosegay#tussy-mussy. Accessed on April 4, 2026.

Miasma and its Objects

Elizabeth Keckley (frontispiece to "Behind the Scenes")

Reproduction of evening bodice and skirt made by Elizabeth Keckley

Mary Lincoln's Dress

Cabinet card of Mary Jane Hale Welles in a funeral dress by Elizabeth Keckly

Dress sewn by Rosa Parks

Brown and black striped silk moiré bodice and skirt

Dress made by an unidentified enslaved woman

Printed floral skirt worn by Lucy Lee Shirley as a child

Teal blue dress and cropped jacket designed by Ann Lowe

Dress designed by Ann Lowe

Singer sewing machine and table from Mae's Millinery Shop

Six colors of thread from Mae's Millinery Shop

Hat box filled with tools and materials from Mae's Millinery Shop

Black beaded dress designed by Zelda Wynn and worn by Ella Fitzgerald

Cream sleeveless dress and jacket designed by Zelda Wynn

Blue and green dress with jacket by Zelda Wynn

Skirt worn by an enslaved ancestor of Janett Sharee Galloway

Costume dress for Lady in Red from for colored girls... on Broadway

Costume dress for Lady in Purple from for colored girls... on Broadway

Costume dress for Lady in Orange from for colored girls... on Broadway

Clothing label for Mae Reeves from Mae's Millinery Shop

Twenty receipts and a business card from Mae's Millinery Shop

North Sixtieth Street Association membership certificate issued to Mae Reeves

Carte-de-visite of Hubert Gideon Welles in outfit sewn by Elizabeth Keckly

African-American women have long been an integral part of the fashion system. Passed down through generations, the art of sewing was a skill many enslaved African-American women knew and used to create clothing for themselves, their families and their enslavers. This was often used as a “selling point” when promoting enslaved women for sale. Many enslavers appreciated enslaved women for their skill in tailoring clothing for their spouses and children, but they were not credited for their work. The handcrafted garments that survive in museums today are archived not by the names of their makers, but simply as garments made by enslaved people. As a class they were recognized for their skills, but only to advance a system that kept them trapped. Over time, African-American women circumvented this system and used their abilities to sew as a way to free themselves from slavery and make a living. In 1855, Elizabeth Keckley, a formerly enslaved woman, successfully purchased the freedom of herself and her son for $1,200 (approximately $40,000 in today’s money) with the help of her dressmaking clients. A hundred years later, Rosa Parks worked as a professional seamstress in an Alabama department store. She had been sewing a dress for herself, which she was carrying, unfinished, in her bag on the day she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus in 1955. The yellow and grey dress featured in this collection is the very same dress, which has been repaired and conserved by the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute. African-Americans also used their sewing abilities to create enterprises that shifted them from being unnamed makers to named fashion designers. Elizabeth Keckley was able to move north where she opened a dress shop, established herself as a designer for the elite, and tailored dresses for many wives of politicians. It is rumored that Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, ordered about 15 dresses from her each season. She even wrote an autobiography, titled Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House, that features a likeness of her in the frontispiece. The volume is collected by the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. And Keckley was not an anomaly; African American women opened dress shops and millineries that allowed them to frame the narrative around their work. In the 1940s, the rise in national African-American media outlets, like Ebony and Jet, contributed to the rise in nationally recognized African-American women designers. These magazines profiled African-American life and celebrities, which included the women who made their clothes. Couturier Anne Lowe and fashion designer Zelda Wynn Valdes were highlighted when celebrities like actress Dorothy Dandridge and singer and songwriter Eartha Kitt were showcased wearing their designs. African-American women not only helped define fashion in this country, they used their skills to define themselves and ensure that they were acknowledged and seen.

African-American Women Designers

Hamid Roslan is a poet and essayist whose work moves between asemic mark-making, translation, and drawing, treating the page as a meeting place for language(s) and line. He is the author of _in all the places I could not find you_ (2022) and _parsetreeforestfire_ (Ethos Books, 2019), a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize. He holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute.

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A Javanese man wearing a suit sits in front of a framed canvas, holding a paintbrush and palette.

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Raden Saleh, the 19th-Century Cosmopolitan Artist

Antônio Jorge M B Silva is a writer based between the Rio Doce Valley in Brazil and New York City. He is a PhD student at New York University, where he researches visual and literary representations of Indigenous knowledge, with a focus on the Krenak community from which he descends.

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Three individuals stand together. The chief, at the center, faces leftward, where his wife stands. To their right, a young man.

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Painting the Botocudo: Ethnography and Invention in George Catlin

Amanda Tobin Ripley, Ph.D., is a scholar, organizer, and educator whose research focuses on the intersection of contemporary labor organizing, cultural and professional work, and social justice. Her dissertation, _“Another World is Possible:” Liberatory Unionism in the U.S. Art Museum Labor Movement_, was the first major academic study of contemporary unionization in U.S. art museums. Amanda is currently based in Berlin, where she works with INPUT Consulting gGmbH to develop and conduct a participatory research project on migrant-to-migrant organizing initiatives at the German trade union ver.di.



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Labor and the Mine Museum

Ekemini Ekpo is a writer from the American and Nigerian Souths. She writes most frequently about arts, culture, and the built environment. Her byline can be found in _The Brooklyn Rail_, _The New York Review of Architecture_, _The Architect’s Newspaper_, _Urban Omnibus_, _3Views on Theater_, and elsewhere. 

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The Racial Dissonance of Post-Civil War American Minstrel Music

Farida Youssef is a researcher and curator based in Cairo. She is interested in the value of spatial theory for artistic inquiries. She was a Merut fellow at the British Museum where she examined the Egyptian collection through the lens of contemporary philosophy. 

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Double exposure image depicting an interior view of a shop in Egypt superimposed with an image of the Brickworks at El Saff.

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Unseeing Egypt: The Value of a Flawed Photograph

Helen Colton is an independent contemporary art curator based in New Mexico. Her research explores art discourse on social repair, environmental justice, and the visual culture of resistance movements. She earned her B.A. in Studio Arts from San Francisco State University and an M.A. in Philosophy, Art, and Social Thought from the European Graduate School.

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Nuclear Entanglements: Atomic Imperialism and the Infrastructure of Erasure

Woman before a Mirror

Man-Bird Effigy Ocarina

Leaf from a Kalighat album: Sheetaladevi: The Smallpox Goddess (recto); Durga (verso)

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