Washington Winter Show 2026

65 But it also tells the story of another rediscovery — that of the singular women behind this collection of blue-and-white who were as impactful, dynamic, and colorful as the Delftware itself. Glimpses of their lives were gleaned from many separate spheres across a myriad of contexts and sources. While some were hidden in plain sight in reference books on ceramics, others were found deep in seldom-accessed les of museums, archives, and libraries. From A Dutch Del ware Blue and White Large Plate, De Klaauw, (The Claw) Factory, ca. 1725-40. The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York combing over owing closets of private archives in New York to sifting through the digital les of the modernist Stadsarchief Delft (Delft City Archives), four years of research—digging through town records, newspaper articles, early travel writing, seventeenth-century guild ledgers, notarial records, and eighteenth-century court proceedings—uncovered its own treasure: the stories of these women’s lives. I had set out to learn about this collection but along the way I found not