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Women's History

One of the stelae mentioning Ix Ch’ak Ch’een

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Decipher Crumbling Hieroglyphs to Reveal the Name of a Forgotten Maya Queen Who Ruled 1,400 Years Ago

Ix Ch’ak Ch’een reigned over the city of Cobá in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Historians didn’t know her name before they began translating a series of inscriptions discovered in 2024

Sally Ride sitting in the cockpit of a NASA Northrop T-38 Talon training jet at Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, 1984

How Far American Women Astronauts Have Soared Since Sally Ride Took Her Historic Spaceflight

In 1978, Ride and five other women became the first group of female astronauts in the U.S. A new book by a longtime curator of spaceflight artifacts explores the nearly five-decade history of women in the space program

The gala honoring Misty Copeland included speeches and performances at Lincoln Center. The American Ballet Theater also livestreamed the event to audiences at a nearby venue.

Trailblazing Dancer Misty Copeland Performs One Last Time Before Retiring From the American Ballet Theater

The ballerina has advocated for dancers of color on and off stage. In a farewell gala this week, she celebrated her accomplishments—and discussed what comes next

Zora Neale Hurston posing outside of a cabin in Belle Glade, Florida, circa 1935

Zora Neale Hurston’s Forgotten Play Premieres on Stage for the First Time

Based on the author’s short story and ethnographic fieldwork, “Spunk” languished in Library of Congress’ archives for decades

The Triumph of Bacchus, Michaelina Wautier, circa 1655-59

A Long-Forgotten 17th-Century Flemish Master Is Finally Getting the Attention She Deserves

For the first time, nearly all of Baroque painter Michaelina Wautier’s works will be exhibited together

Frida Kahlo painted The Dream (The Bed) in 1940 during a period of “intense personal trauma and creative renewal,” according to Sotheby's.

This Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Could Become the Most Expensive Work by a Female Artist Ever Sold at Auction

“The Dream (The Bed)” will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in November. Experts say it could fetch between $40 million and $60 million

A portrait of Johanna Koerten, whose "thread painting" for the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I sold for more money than Rembrandt's The Night Watch, one of the most famous artworks of all time

This 17th-Century Female Artist Was Once a Bigger Star Than Rembrandt. Why Did History Forget About Johanna Koerten and Her Peers?

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts spotlights 40 women who found fame in the Low Countries between 1600 and 1750, including Koerten, Judith Leyster and Clara Peeters

The researchers connected an inscription on a marble pedestal to the well-preserved marble sculpture.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Say They’ve Solved the Mystery of This Marble Statue. Its Subject Was a Woman Who Might Have Helped an Ancient City Achieve Political Freedom

The marble sculpture, discovered at Chersonesos Taurica in Crimea in 2003, has been identified as a woman named Laodice

Medical supplies for the front are piled up at a railway station in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1935. Back in America, Black educator Melva L. Price rallied support for Ethiopian refugees fleeing the violence of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

During the Great Depression, This Black Educator Looked to Conflicts Abroad for Lessons on Fighting Racism at Home

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War offered Melva L. Price and her fellow female activists an opportunity to examine the links between racism and fascism

A depiction of George Washington and his mother, Mary Ball Washington, attending a ball celebrating the surrender at Yorktown in 1781

America's 250th Anniversary

The Reinvention of George Washington’s Mother, From Paragon of Virtue to Greedy Shrew to Widow Striving for Independence

A new biography examines how 19th-century Americans remembered Mary Ball Washington, who raised the future president largely on her own after her husband’s death in 1743

Visitors participate in a Forest Temple service in the spiritualist community of Lily Dale, about an hour southwest of Buffalo.

The Tiny New York Town Where Mediums Give Voice to the Dead

Lily Dale is home to about 40 mediums who connect thousands of spiritual seekers with their deceased loved ones

Clockwise from top left: Abigail Adams, Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Four Famous American Women Who Were Also Prolific Letter Writers

In a long and storied tradition, these bold women recorded history—and shaped it—through their correspondence

Jesse Mockrin. The Descent, oil on linen, 7.5 by 25.8 feet, 2024.

A New Exhibit in Toronto Reexamines the Works of the Baroque Masters

In her monumental work inspired by the Rape of the Sabine Women, an artist reimagines a much-depicted story from antiquity

Left to right, American models Joanna McCormick, Janet Randy, Betsy Pickering and Gretchen Harris pose for Charm amid traffic on Park Avenue. 

The First Magazines Written for Career Women Reveal a Portrait of Immense Creativity and Hope

Publications including “Mademoiselle,” “Glamour” and the long-forgotten “Charm” first emerged in the 1930s to satisfy an emergent force in the workplace

“We cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country,” wrote the resolution’s 51 signees. Their words were republished in newspapers across the Thirteen Colonies and beyond.

America's 250th Anniversary

To Protest British Taxes, Men Dumped Tea Into Boston Harbor. With the Edenton Tea Party, Colonial Women Took a Different Approach

In 1774, 51 North Carolinian women led by Penelope Barker signed a resolution supporting the boycott of British goods

Thornton's handwritten memoirs recount the same period of her life.

Read the Dramatic 17th-Century Memoirs of Alice Thornton, Who Wrote Four Versions of Her Life Story

Researchers have digitized all four volumes, which are now available online. The autobiographies offer a compelling window into a tumultuous period in English history

Umpire Jen Pawol during a spring training game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Miami Marlins on March 16, 2024

Women Who Shaped History

Jen Pawol Is About to Become the First Female Umpire in Major League Baseball History

When the Atlanta Braves face off against the Miami Marlins this weekend, Pawol will become the first woman to umpire in a regular season MLB game

The hyper-realistic busts are on display at the Moravian Museum in Brno, Czech Republic.

New Research

See the Faces of Two Sisters Who Toiled Away in a Neolithic Mine 6,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists created 3D reconstructions of the women’s faces based on an analysis of their teeth and bones. Found in the Czech Republic, the siblings “did not have an easy life,” the new research suggests

Amelia Earhart stands in front of her Lockheed Vega flanked by two men in 1932

Amelia Earhart Made History in a Plane She Called Her ‘Little Red Bus.’ Here’s How It Became a Revered Museum Artifact and Hallowed Symbol

As the Smithsonian presents the aviator’s restored Vega in Washington, a special replica of the aircraft quietly re-emerges after decades in obscurity

Artist Franck Duval, known as FKDL, works on a mural Josephine Baker in Paris.

Women Who Shaped History

A Vibrant Mural Celebrating Josephine Baker’s ‘Two Loves’—‘My Country and Paris’—Has Been Unveiled in France

The colorful street art, which features a quote from one of her songs, honors the iconic singer, dancer and civil rights activist’s enduring legacy

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