The William Munroe Special Collections is delighted to introduce its newest exhibition, "Alicia Keyes: New Pathways to Beauty." The exhibition features Concord artist Alicia Keyes' paintings, sketches from Special Collections, and pieces on loan from the Emerson and Keyes families and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association. The exhibition is on display in the Munroe Gallery from October 26 to December 30, 2024. Join Special Collections for a gallery talk on Saturday, November 9, 3:00-4:00 pm. Light refreshments will be served.

Known by her family as Lily or Lillie, Alicia Mulliken Keyes (1855-1924) was the daughter of John Shepard and Martha Lawrence Prescott Keyes. Alicia grew up with her siblings, Annie, Florence, and Prescott, in the "Bullet Hole House" on Monument Street in Concord. She spent her life surrounded by art, creating and teaching it to others. Her passion for art would take her on a multi-year tour of Europe and then to a career teaching art and art history at Wellesley and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as well as a role in the founding of the Concord Art Association. Primarily teaching women, she gave them a glimpse of art from her unique perspective. As Daniel Chester French described her upon her death, "That removes one of the most characteristic of all Concord's people, and I don't like to think of the town without her."

 A highlight of the exhibition is a group of her sketchbooks, most of which have never been on view. Alicia traveled to Europe in 1884 and spent most of the next two years abroad, studying and sketching in England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy. While the original sketchbooks are on display in the exhibition cases, numerous images from the sketchbooks have been enlarged and printed to highlight her work.