Special Report

Women Who Shaped History

The Smithsonian's American Women’s History Initiative is a comprehensive undertaking that documents, researches, collects, displays and shares the rich and compelling story of women in the United States. In celebration of the AWHI, Smithsonian magazine has collected representative examples of its coverage of diverse women throughout American history.

Amelia Earhart (left) and Eleanor Roosevelt (right)

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of George R. Rinhart, in memory of Joan Rinhart

Mickalene Thomas, <em> Jet Blue #25</em> (detail), 2021

Mickalene Thomas' Dazzling Collages Reclaim Black Women's Bodies

“Titian made art into his late 80s and I’m now past that. I always wanted to paint like an old master, or rather an old mistress,” says the photorealist painter and sculptor Audrey Flack. “A radical contemporary old mistress.”

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

This Feminist Artist Is Cultivating Her Old Mistress Legacy

Clockwise from top left: Charity Adams Earley, Harriet Tubman, Edith Nourse Rogers, Lori Piestewa and Mary E. Clarke

Five Women Veterans Who Deserve to Have Army Bases Named After Them

Del Martin, left, and Phyllis Lyon were officially wed June 16, 2008 in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco after legalization.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The Incredible Story of Lesbian Activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon

In the Southwest, Morris documented what she described as a “treasure trove”—a “topography rich in large dry caves, neatly adapted to ancient dwellings and graveyards.”

Groundbreaking Archaeologist Ann Axtell Morris Finally Gets the Cinematic Treatment

L to R: Zelia Nutall, Mary Mahoney and Bertha Parker

Looking Beyond the Female Firsts of Science History

At the Smithsonian

Babe Didrickson’s brash behavior along with her decorated athleticism (above: second from right in the 80-meter hurdle) challenged every imagined ideal for a woman athlete in the 1930s.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Olympian Babe Didrikson Cleared the Same Hurdles Women Athletes Face Today

Gracie Anderson

In 1939, at age 13, Villa played for the East Los Angeles girls’ community team, the Garvey Stars. Over the next few years, she played for the semiprofessional Orange Lionettes team in Southern California and was signed to play in the AAGPBL in 1946.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The Record-Setting Latina Player Marge Villa Leveled the Playing Field

Gracie Anderson

Sixty-five years ago Althea Gibson (above: in 1959) broke the color line at the French Open.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Sixty-Five Years Ago, Althea Gibson Broke the Color Line at the French Open

The Smithsonian's 1980 portrait of Yuri Kochiyama by Corky Lee (above, detail) is the "perfect combination of subject and artist," says the National Portrait Gallery's Ann Shumard.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Behind This Photo Is the Story of Two Asian American Folk Heroes

They Shaped Culture

Joan Mitchell in her Paris studio in 1956

The Poetry and Passion of Joan Mitchell's Abstract Expressionist Paintings

“Titian made art into his late 80s and I’m now past that. I always wanted to paint like an old master, or rather an old mistress,” says the photorealist painter and sculptor Audrey Flack. “A radical contemporary old mistress.”

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Stand Aside, Old Masters: This Feminist Artist Is Cultivating Her Old Mistress Legacy

Samantha Baskind

The 6-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide pumpkin was installed on Japan's Naoshima island in 1994.

Typhoon Sweeps Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Sculpture Into the Sea

Isis Davis-Marks

Helina Metaferia, Crowning Care 1, 2021

Pioneering Project Explores Motherhood Through the Lens of Design

Isis Davis-Marks

Women in STEM

Ophthalmologist Dr. Patricia Bath poses with students at the National Museum of American History in 2000.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Hear Voices of Women Trailblazers in Science, Technology and Innovation

Suffragist Rosalie Barrow Edge founded the world's first refuge for birds of prey.

How Mrs. Edge Saved the Birds

Michelle Nijhuis; Photographs by Melissa Groo

Ocean creatures are noisier than scientists first thought.

Biologist Marie Fish Catalogued the Sounds of the Ocean for the World to Hear

Ben Goldfarb

Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize recipient for her work on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, and the "life sciences revolution" are the dual subjects of Walter Isaacson's latest biography.

How Scientist Jennifer Doudna Is Leading the Next Technological Revolution

Future of Women's History

Astronaut Sally Ride (left) and poet Maya Angelou (right) will be the first individuals honored through the American Women Quarters Program.

Maya Angelou, Sally Ride to Be Among First Women Featured on U.S. Quarters

Artist Simon Berger created the portrait by strategically hammering cracks into a pane of glass.

Kamala Harris Portrait Draws Inspiration From the Glass Ceiling She Shattered

Isis Davis-Marks

Gorman's inaugural poem contains lines stating “But while democracy can be periodically delayed / It can never be permanently defeated.”

Meet Amanda Gorman, the U.S.' Youngest Inaugural Poet