Written by Kelly Morgan Last week we looked at a few selections of World War I propaganda posters promoting enlistment culled from the New-York Historical Society. This week, we’ll examine how the posters called on women to support the war effort and utilized female imagery both for the purpose of enlisting soldiers and for their…

On October 23, 1915, over 25,000 women marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City to advocate for women’s suffrage. At that point, the fight had been ongoing for more than 65 years, with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 first passing a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t find success for another…

On June 4, 1919, the US Congress approved the 19th Amendment, which granted suffrage to women. The Amendment was not ratified by the states until August 18, 1920, but the approval was a huge victory for women’s rights. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton first drafted and introduced the amendment in 1878, but it took over forty years…

  When World War II broke out, men and women were both expected to give their all to support the war effort. For many women, that meant joining the ranks of the WAVES or becoming a defense worker. Women all over the country went to work building planes, ships, and other supplies for the men…

  New York Fashion Week is a time when the fashion world comes together to showcase how they’re moving couture forward. However, as avant-garde as fashion may get, there is always inspiration to be found in the past. Photographer Bill Cunningham made that apparent in his “Façades” project, where model Editta Sherman (aka the “Duchess of…

Today, the New York Times wishes a happy upcoming 150th birthday to Edith Wharton, the author of such works as the Age of Innocence and The Buccaneers, which ripped into the culture and practices of the American nouveau-riche. Wharton herself was born into the New York upper crust, but said many of these families “had…

By Timothy Wroten For the world of American art and design, last week was marked by the passing of illustrious designer and ceramicist Eva Zeisel, who was 105. The New-York Historical Society Museum was fortunate enough to work with Zeisel in 2003 to collect and exhibit some of her remarkable designs. Above are some pitchers that were donated to us by…

What was your proudest memento from your time at school? Is it the catapult you built for your physics class? The research paper that earned you an A? Your high school diploma? For many schoolgirls in New York in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was their needlepoint.  Helping to hone skills in everything from manual dexterity…