Jewelry Empowering Women: A Yemini Story

Renowned Yemeni jewelry expert and author Marjorie Ransom will host a free lecture and reception on Yemeni culture, followed by a book signing of her new book, Silver Treasures from the Land Of Sheba: Regional Yemeni Jewelry, which highlights her vast knowledge and experience in the art of traditional Middle Eastern silver jewelry. In the 1960s, her 30+ year career as a United States diplomat began where she traveled with her late husband across Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Egypt, collecting more than 2000 pieces of silver jewelry. Upon retirement from the Department of State, she organized her collection into what became the Silver Speaks: Traditional Jewelry of the Middle East exhibition, which AANM proudly hosted in 2007.

• About Marjorie Ransom
  

With the help of American Institute for Yemeni Studies research grants, Ransom spent a year in Yemen during the 2004-2009 timeframe studying jewelry and costumes.

Ransom has lectured widely in the U.S. about the traditional jewelry of the Middle East and spoke about Yemeni silver jewelry at the Freer Gallery Symposium on the Cultural Heritage of Yemen in 2003.  In fact, the idea of researching Yemeni jewelry came out of that seminar.

Her book is the first in-depth study of Yemeni silver, uniquely illustrated with more than 300 photographs of a world that is transforming before our eyes, and animated with the portraits of a precious legacy.