Written by: Peter Nardini

“A Graceful Rise”focuses on “Women in Fly Fishing Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”
Photo courtesy The American Museum of Fly Fishing
The American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF) has launched a web version of its groundbreaking exhibition, A Graceful Rise: Women in Fly Fishing Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. This digital archive allows public access to the collection celebrating some of the most influential women in fly-fishing history.
The physical exhibition for A Graceful Rise opened in June 2011 at the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vermont. This groundbreaking initiative was the first large-scale project to research, compile, and display the history of women’s role in the sport. There were fifty-two women highlighted from the fifteenth century through today, including Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, Carrie Stevens, Kay Brodney, Karen Graham, and Joan Salvato Wulff. Many of the artifacts were from the personal collections of these women and had never before been seen by the public. Now, thanks to the new digital exhibition, this information will be available for all to enjoy.
The American Museum of Fly Fishing thanks the incredible people who contributed their art, equipment, and artifacts to this exhibition as well as those who helped make this website a reality. The AMFF would also like to thank the Orvis Company for sponsoring the Museum’s first online exhibition. The A Graceful Rise website will serve as a model for future exhibitions, taking the material outside the environs of our Museum in Vermont and making it digitally accessible for fly-fishing enthusiasts across the country.
Click here to see the online exhibit.

Cornelia Thurza Crosby, a.k.a. Fly Rod Crosby, was the first licensed guide in Maine, in 1898.
Photo courtesy The American Museum of Fly Fishing
cant wait ! john