Skip to main content
Exhibition

JANE! An intimate exploration of Gilded Age excess 
and the enigmatic life and death of Jane Stanford

Sponsored by
Napoleon T. Sarony, Portrait of Jane Lathrop Stanford, 1871. Photograph with charcoal touch up, 55 ½ x 45 in. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford Family Collections, JLS.18217

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Add to calendar:

Cantor Arts Center, Stanford Family Rooms
328 Lomita Drive, Stanford, CA 94305
View map

Event Details:

Curated by Associate Curator of European Art, Patrick R. Crowley, JANE! celebrates the aesthetic and affective excesses of Jane Stanford, the Gilded Age founder and matriarch of Stanford University. Bringing together precious keepsakes, souvenirs, archaeological detritus, and spooky messages from beyond the grave, the exhibition reveals the campy underside of a familiar biography and perhaps an even more familiar murder mystery.

From her elegant French gowns to a colossal painting of her jewels, from the Egyptian artifacts she acquired for her fledgling museum to a Hawaiian skirt she may or may not have purchased immediately before her suspicious death, Jane! presents various idiosyncratic artifacts of Stanford lore—many shown for the very first time, and very likely for the last.

IMAGE: Napoleon T. Sarony, Portrait of Jane Lathrop Stanford, 1871. Photograph with charcoal touch up, 55 ½ x 45 in. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford Family Collections, JLS.18217

MUSEUM HOURS
Mon & Fri: 11 AM–6 PM
Thurs: 11 AM–8 PM
Sat & Sun: 10 AM–5 PM
CLOSED: Tues and Wed
We’re always free! Come visit us, https://museum.stanford.edu/visit

2 people are interested in this event

Location: