The history is right there in Wyoming’s official nickname: the Equality State. In 1889, delegates to Wyoming’s constitutional convention voted to do something that had never been done before: permanently guarantee women the right to vote in a constitution, without any preconditions. Article No. VI, Section 1, states plainly: “The rights of citizens of the…

Bill Graham once said he didn’t remember much about his childhood. Maybe that’s because he preferred to forget. One of the most influential rock & roll promoters of all time, Graham was quite literally the man behind the music. The manager of the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and the Fillmore East in New…

In the early 19th century, artist Martha Ann Honeywell would sweep through towns like a band on tour. An artist who specialized in needlework, embroidery, and cut paper, among other mediums, she’d set up shop at a museum, tavern, or boardinghouse, charge 50 cents a ticket and perform three times a day for two hours…

When you think about a brooch, you might think of your grandmother’s beautiful and intricate butterfly pin. Or maybe you’ve read about the various adornments that Queen Elizabeth II wears on special occasions. But for people living in the Victorian era, something as simple as a brooch was weighted with meaning and heavily scrutinized by…

Here’s the first thing you need to know about Anne Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville besides her remarkable name: Napoleon himself was so struck by her courage that he decided not to execute her husband. The Baroness is the subject of the New-York Historical exhibition Artist in Exile: The Visual…

Before he became a titan of American literature and the witty bard of life in the 19th century, Mark Twain was just another young man looking for his big break in New York City. In the New-York Historical exhibition Mark Twain and the Holy Land (opening Oct. 25), we’re exploring the fabled journey behind one…

Henry Pelham created an image for the ages. On the snowy night of March 5, 1770, a group of British soldiers were confronted by an unruly crowd of colonists near the Custom House in Boston. The melee that followed ended with the panicked troops firing into the crowd, killing several colonists, including Crispus Attucks, a…

Panoramas are all about spectacle, and the biggest spectacle in New-York Historical’s current exhibition Panoramas: The Big Picture is Claude Samton’s 1986 photomosaic of Manhattan’s Canal St. An immersive work that runs the whole length of one of our galleries, Canal Street is made up of about 2,000 individual photographs that Samton shot and then…

Tycoons love to survey their empires. And in the 1870s, that empire was San Francisco. The city was in a period of ravenous growth fueled by mining discoveries like the 1848 Gold Rush and the Comstock Lode, and the first transcontinental rail line, a feat that made the men behind the Central Pacific Railroad—Mark Hopkins,…