Articles by Gaby D’Alessandro | Smithsonian Magazine

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A portrait of Fuller, inspired by her 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which argued for equality of the sexes. The book’s opening illustration featured mystical symbols of harmonizing opposites, including the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail.

Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America

Her writing posed the novel premise: What does it mean to be a woman? Her early death meant she never saw the movement she inspired

Summer 2026