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Little Rock’s Esse Purse Museum is the only purse museum in the United States and only one of the three in the entire world. The museum displays “the evolution of the 20th-century American woman through the bags she carried and their contents” (“Home”). The museum’s featured permanent exhibit is “A Century of Women’s Handbags (1900-1999)” that explores each decade’s history of handbags and the popular contents within them.

Esse Purse Museum and Store (Photograph by Nancy Nolan; courtesy of the Esse Purse Museum)

Esse Purse Museum and Store
(Photograph by Nancy Nolan; courtesy of the Esse Purse Museum)

Display at the Esse Purse Museum (Photograph by Nancy Nolan; courtesy of the Esse Purse Museum)

Display at the Esse Purse Museum
(Photograph by Nancy Nolan; courtesy of the Esse Purse Museum)
http://www.essepursemuseum.com http://www.essepursemuseum.com/exhibits/ Photographs by Nancy Nolan and courtesy of the Esse Purse Museum