Current Exhibitions

Every year the Flagler Museum hosts world-class exhibitions highlighting artists, topics, and issues related to the Gilded Age (1865-1929).
We encourage you to visit each exhibition pages to learn about a wide range of subjects.

2025 Fall Exhibition
November 11, 2025 through January 18, 2026

May I Help You, Madame?
The making of the Modern Department Store

The Flagler Museum will open its 2025 - 2026 Season with the Fall Exhibition, May I Help You, Madame?  The Making of the Modern Department Store.  This exhibition explores the rise of the department store as one of the most influential, and transformative, institutions of modern urban life. Emerging in 19th-century Paris with innovations like Le Bon Marché, the department store quickly became a global phenomenon, reshaping the landscape of commerce, architecture, gender roles, and public space. American interpretations, from Lord & Taylor and Bergdorf Goodman to regional powerhouses like Wanamaker’s, adapted the model to suit a rapidly modernizing society, blending luxury, mass consumption, and spectacle.

At the heart of this transformation was the female figure, both behind and in front of the counter. The “shopgirl” became a new symbol of working-class aspiration, navigating structured employment in elegant surroundings while carving out pathways toward economic independence. Simultaneously, department stores courted the female consumer with unprecedented sophistication, constructing new ideals of femininity through fashion, leisure, and consumption.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by Templeton Accountants and Advisors, Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council, the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, and State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture.