New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

womens history

Modernist Misogyny & Lady Penrose of Poughkeepsie

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Vogue cover March 15 1927Elizabeth “Lee” Miller started her career in the fashion industry. Having been model and assistant to surrealist artist and photographer Emmanuel Radnitzky, better known as Man Ray, she had the drive and talent to pursue her own professional ambition. During the Second World War, she was one of five accredited female photo-journalists accompanying American troops.

In a turbulent life traumatic events in her youth and maturity took their toll and may have hampered the appreciation of her contribution. Full recognition of the artistic value of her work is long overdue. [Read more…] about Modernist Misogyny & Lady Penrose of Poughkeepsie

Documentary Explores Erie Canal’s Role in Shaping America

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Erie Canal in 1829The new documentary Floating Ideas: How the Erie Canal Helped Shape America is set to premier on WCNY-TV on June 29th at 9 pm. The half-hour documentary examines the spread of ideas along the Erie Canal with emphasis on women’s rights, suffrage, and the quest for social justice. [Read more…] about Documentary Explores Erie Canal’s Role in Shaping America

Marguerite Kearns: Unfinished Women’s Rights Revolution (Podcast)

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast the guest is Marguerite Kearns, author of Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights (SUNY Press, 2021). The book explores how Edna Buckman Kearns’s focus on women’s suffrage and world peace affected her family then and now. [Read more…] about Marguerite Kearns: Unfinished Women’s Rights Revolution (Podcast)

Layered Citizenship: Amended Podcast’s Final Episode

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Amended PodcastWhen the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, millions of Native American women still could not vote. The U.S. government did not recognize them as citizens. And if U.S. citizenship required renouncing tribal sovereignty, many Native women didn’t want it. But early-twentieth-century writer, composer, and activist Zitkála-Šá was determined to fight for both. [Read more…] about Layered Citizenship: Amended Podcast’s Final Episode

Salons: American Rebels, French Etiquette and Lesbian History

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Salon at the Hôtel de RambouilletWhen Benjamin Franklin traveled to Paris in 1776 seeking support for the Revolution, the old charmer became a popular guest at the city’s glittering salons. His successor Thomas Jefferson continued his PR work and established contacts with the city’s most prominent salonnières. Thomas Paine too was a visitor of various salons. Thanks to their socio-diplomatic involvement, the American Revolution became a central topic of discussion at such gatherings. [Read more…] about Salons: American Rebels, French Etiquette and Lesbian History

Author Asks: What Was The Suffrage Movement Really Like?

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An Unfinished RevolutionMarguerite Kearns started asking questions about her suffragist grandmother Edna Buckman Kearns when she was ten years old. She couldn’t understand why no photos of Edna were displayed in the home where she was raised. She realized later that family members hadn’t processed the grief of Edna’s death in 1934. They loved her, and reminders of family history, including photos, made the matter worse. [Read more…] about Author Asks: What Was The Suffrage Movement Really Like?

Manhattan ‘Flash’ Culture: Madams and Sporting Men

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Harris’s ListThroughout the nineteenth century, prostitution was rife in American cities. In 1820 there were an estimated two hundred brothels in New York, growing to more than six hundred after the Civil War. By the early 1840s the city was the nation’s whoring capital, its own Gomorrah.

Most houses of assignation before the Civil War were owned and controlled by women. Some madams made spectacular careers, nobody more so than Fanny White whose Mercer Street brothel was, from 1851 onward, a meeting place for Congressmen, dignitaries and diplomats – a Manhattan whoreocracy. [Read more…] about Manhattan ‘Flash’ Culture: Madams and Sporting Men

Trailblazing Women: Geraldine Ferraro

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Jimmy Carter with Congresswomen Geraldine FerraroGeraldine Ferraro, born in Newburgh and later of the South Bronx, would make history as the first female Vice Presidential nominee for a major party. In 1984, Democratic Presidential nominee Walter Mondale announced that Congresswoman of New York would be his running mate. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Geraldine Ferraro

Trailblazing Women: Peace Activist Tracy Mygatt

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Tracy Mygatt Frances Witherspoon and Mercedes RandallAs we celebrate Women’s History Month it is only fitting that we call attention to the contributions one native New Yorker made to the cause of world peace and social justice.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 12th, 1885, Tracy Mygatt was inspired by her New England ancestors’ religious convictions and translated those spiritual roots into radical social change, one that was highlighted by her own political determination.

After her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 1908, she devoted her life to a number of reform causes, which included child labor and unemployment, world peace through her association with peace organizations and calls for world government, and an economic system based on democratic-socialist principles. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Peace Activist Tracy Mygatt

Trailblazing Women: Mae Jemison

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Mission Specialist Mae Jemison courtesy National ArchivesMae Carol Jemison became the first African American woman accepted into NASA’s space training program on June 4th, 1987. Five years later, on September 12th, 1992, she became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Mae Jemison