User:Megan Harding/sandbox

Mary A. Ainsworth (1867-1950) was born in Geneseo, Illinois, and collected Japanese woodblock prints during the early part of the 20th century, a time when Japan had recently ended its isolationist policy and ukiyo-e prints were relatively inexpensive. She amassed a collection of more than 1,500 color woodblock prints from Japan's Edo Period (1603-1868), which she donated to Oberlin College's Allen Memorial Art Museum in 1950.

After graduating from Oberlin College in 1889, Ainsworth first traveled to Japan in 1905, returning many times over the next 25 years. She traveled as an unaccompanied woman, unusual for that era, and never married. During the first part of the 20th century, when Ainsworth was collecting, Japan was emerging from a period of isolation and strict controls on its merchant class, who were forbidden from buying luxury and status items. They devised their own forms of entertainment, developing urban districts featuring Kabuki theaters, tea houses, and courtesans. Artists developed a genre of prints depicting this fleeting world, known as ukiyo-e, or "Pictures of the Floating World," which were affordable to the merchant class. The Mary A. Ainsworth Collection of prints and books is known for its remarkable quality and depth.