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  • Alice B. Toklas (North American, 1877–1967), Quilted vest made for Gertrude Stein, ca. 1920. Gertrude Stein Collection, Box 3. Harry Ransom Center.
  • Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973), Hommage à Basket [Homage to Gertrude Stein’s poodle], n.d. Collage sculpture in frame, with annotated calling card for Paul Picasso. Carlton Lake Art Collection, 70.35. Harry Ransom Center. © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Cocktail napkin, ca. 1937. Gertrude Stein Collection, Box 2. Harry Ransom Center.
  • Postcard showing Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas as ambulance drivers in France, ca. 1917. Carlton Lake Collection, 14.3. Harry Ransom Center.
  • Hand towel belonging to Gertrude Stein with embroidered pink and grey poodle, ca. 1930. Gertrude Stein Collection, Box 2. Harry Ransom Center.
  • Gertrude Stein at Bilignin, France, with her dogs Pépé and Basket, ca. 1933. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Exhibitions Events Plan Your Visit

The Worlds of Gertrude Stein

August 15, 2026 – January 11, 2027

This exhibition celebrates the life and writing of Gertrude Stein, a legendary but much misunderstood modernist figure. Clothing, stationary, and household items tell a story of Stein's life in Paris with Alice Toklas, their ideas about taste and beauty, and their attempt to shape Stein’s literary reputation. Artworks by figures she collected (including Cézanne and Picasso) illuminate Stein's role in avant-garde art. Manuscripts and books document her radical experiments with language, and the literary scenes she shaped and divided. Reflecting on home and belonging, on insiders and outsiders, on the thirst for fame and the desire for privacy, the exhibition invites visitors to walk into the worlds of a literary icon.

This exhibition is organized by guest curator Dr. Sophie Oliver, Senior Lecturer in Modernism, University of Liverpool.

National Endowment for the Humanities

Austin PBS

The Ransom Center appreciates our promotional partners: The Austin Chronicle and KUT 90.5 & KUTX 98.9

Any views, findings, recommendations or conclusions expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.