Stanford University
Exhibition

JANE!

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

July 2, 2026–May 18, 2028

Jane Lathrop Stanford

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

Stanford Family Room (122)

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 container of her beauty cream excavated from her Palo Alto mansion destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, JANE! presents various idiosyncratic artifacts of Stanford lore—many of them shown for the very first time—and very probably for the last.

Gallery

Funeral boat with figures
Jane Lathrop Stanford in white gown

Jane Lathrop Stanford

Léon-Joseph-Florentin Bonnat (French, 1833–1922). "Jane Lathrop Stanford," 1881. 91 5/16 x 63 3/4 in. Oil on canvas. Stanford Family Collections, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, JLS.12020.1
Leland Stanford Jr. as an Angel Comforting his Grieving Mother

Leland Stanford Jr. as an Angel Comforting his Grieving Mother

Èmile Munier (French, 1840–1895), "Leland Stanford Jr. as an Angel Comforting his Grieving Mother," 1884. 37 5/8 x 30 5/8 x 1 in. Oil on canvas. Stanford Family Collections, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, JLS.14897
Jane Stanford's Jewels

Mrs. Stanford’s Jewel Collection

Astley D. M. Cooper (American, 1856–19240. "Mrs. Stanford’s Jewel Collection," 1898. 50 x 75 in. Oil on canvas. Stanford Family Collections, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, JLS.16294
Little Leland’s Last Breakfast

Little Leland’s Last Breakfast

David Gilhooly (American, 1943–2013), "Little Leland’s Last Breakfast," 1991. Glazed earthenware, silverplate, and wood. Gift of Patrick and Darle Maveety, Class of 1951, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University 1991.53
Funeral boat with figures

Funeral boat with figures

Artist unknown, "Funeral boat with figures," c. 1981 BCE-1802 BCE. Africa, Egypt. 8 1/16 x 29 1/8 x 5 1/8 in. Wood and pigment. Stanford Family Collections, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, JLS.21342