Jeanie’s World: The Art and Travel of Jeanie Caldwell Dougherty

The Museums of Oglebay Institute present the exhibit Jeanie’s World: The Art and Travel of Jeanie Caldwell Dougherty.

It is on display in the Sauder Gallery of the Mansion Museum July 1—November 5, 2023.

About the Exhibit

Jeanie Caldwell Dougherty (1845-1935) may be one of the most talented artists from Wheeling and was certainly one of the most well-traveled. Widowed at the age of 30, Dougherty devoted the rest of her life to making art and seeing the world. After studying painting in San Francisco and Paris in the 1870s, she spent decades traveling, visiting everywhere from England and Italy to China and the Philippines. Everywhere she went, Dougherty documented her experiences by creating hundreds of artworks.

Through oil paintings, watercolors, and sketches Dougherty captured the world around her as an artist, a traveler, and a keen observer. Depicting the daily lives of locals she met in far-flung destinations, she painted Impressionist landscapes of laundresses at work and walkers in the park, as well as realistic portraits of sleeping babies and praying monks.

Featuring more than 50 works of art by Jeanie Caldwell Dougherty, Jeanie’s World explores the life of a talented and independent female artist who viewed the whole world as a canvas to be painted.

The exhibit includes a significant number of artworks on loan from the T.W. Phillips Memorial Library at Bethany College.

See the Exhibit

Jeanie’s World is included with admission to the Mansion Museum.

Admission is $15 for both museums (Mansion and Glass Museum); $10 for a single museum. Admission is free for ages 17 and under accompanied by an adult and free to Oglebay Institute members.

The Museums of Oglebay Institute are open 10am-5pm daily April- November. For year-round hours, click here.

Call 304-242-7272 for more information.

About the Museums of Oglebay Institute

At the Museums of Oglebay Institute, the universal human experience of storytelling is interwoven with our inherent desire to gather, sort and display things. By meticulously collecting, caring for, showcasing and interpreting objects, the museums discover, preserve and share stories, linking us to the past in tangible and intangible ways.

Before the iconic 1846 yellow mansion became the first accredited museum in West Virginia, it was the summer home of Cleveland industrialist Earl W. Oglebay. Today, as Oglebay Institute’s Mansion Museum, it invites visitors to connect with history and the people who lived it.

Each of the museum’s thirteen period rooms takes guests on a journey through the lives of the people who might have used the objects inside—and the historic events that marked the times.

Across the hill, Oglebay Institute’s Glass Museum celebrates local industry with more than 3,500 pieces of Wheeling-made glass. From walking sticks to everyday dishes to the world’s largest piece of cut lead glass, the collection functions as a visual narrative of the Ohio Valley’s long legacy of glassmaking and the craftsmen who made it possible. Visitors can also experience the art of glassmaking through live demonstrations and workshops in OI’s glass studio.

Through careful curation, the Museums of Oglebay Institute go beyond exhibition to education. Together, they serve as informal classrooms where visitors travel through time, connecting with the past through the things that people have left behind.