Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) founded one of the most famous art museums in America, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Born to a privileged New York family and married to Boston Brahmin Jack Gardner, Isabella Stewart Gardner used her wealth to amass an astonishing collection of European and American masterworks and oversaw their installation and display in the new museum, while also scandalizing Boston society with her unconventional behavior. 

The NEH Public Scholar biography Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra tells Gardner's story, shedding light on her life of “beauty and loss, grit and American self-determination.”  

The New York Times book review describes Chasing Beauty as a “tribute to the power of art.”