The Philadelphia Ten, also known as The Ten, was a group of American female artists who exhibited together from 1917 to 1945. The group, eventually numbering 30 painters and sculptors, exhibited annually in Philadelphia and later had traveling exhibitions at museums throughout the East Coast and the Midwest. Purpose The Philadelphia Ten was formed to help women who wanted to move beyond the role of hobbyists, as they were commonly viewed in the early 20th century, to be accepted as professional artists. For example, one of the objectives of the group was to give women the ability to control how their work was exhibited. They could limit the number of participants in shows and allow each one to exhibit a larger number of pieces than was typically possible in a juried competition. In addition, the group provided a supportive environment for their creativity, with discussion forums, access to models and professional instruction. The lifestyle choices of the members were unusual for the time: many of them never married; others who did marry chose not to have children or kept their maiden names. For many of the women, the group became a source of friendships and collegial relationships. History and legacy The group's first show was held at the Art Club of Philadelphia in February 1917. It included 247 paintings by 11 artists, nine trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design) and two from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Over the years, more women joined the group; in all, 30 artists participated in the 65 subsequent exhibitions. The final exhibition of the group was held in April 1945 at the Woodmere Gallery in Philadelphia. The works exhibited reflected the influence of teachers such as impressionist Henry B. Snell and included landscapes, still lifes, portraits and sculpture. In 1998, in celebration of the school's 150th anniversary, the faculty of the Moore College of Art and Design organized a retrospective of the Philadelphia Ten that traveled to museums throughout the country. The exhibition included 81 paintings and 9 sculptures. In 2010, Moore College showed archived pieces dating from the 1920s–40s of seven of the first eleven members of The Philadelphia Ten, along with recent works by members of The Other Woman art collective, also formed by former students of the college. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many local and