Meet the Museum’s New Elizabeth MacMillan Director Anthea M. Hartig

WHAT:        The National Museum of American History will host a media breakfast to introduce the

                      new Elizabeth MacMillan Director Anthea M. Hartig, along with a preview of the new

                      display “All Work, No Pay,” which focuses on the history of women’s invisible labor.

 

WHEN:        Monday, March 4

                      9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

 

WHERE:     First floor, center

                      Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

                      Constitution Avenue entrance, between 12th and 14th streets N.W.

 

WHO:          Anthea M. Hartig, director, National Museum of American History

                     Kathleen Franz, curator and chair, Division of Work and Industry 

                     Kate Haulman, associate professor of history and guest curator, American University

 

Anthea M. Hartig, Ph.D., started her position as the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the National Museum of American History Feb. 18. She is the first woman to hold the post since the museum opened in 1964. A third-generation Southern California native, she grew up in the greater Pomona Valley. Before joining the Smithsonian, she served as the executive director and CEO of the California Historical Society in San Francisco. An award-winning public historian and cultural heritage expert, she is dedicated to making the nation’s richly diverse history accessible and relevant.

 

Media will be able to view the new “All Work, No Pay” display that shows how women continue to be responsible for most of the unpaid work at home. It explores the theme in three sections: “Separating Home and Work,” which looks at changing gender perspectives in early America; “Making Unpaid into Paid Work,” which contrasts paid workforce gains against the continuation of unpaid work in the home from the 1890s to 1940s; and “The Second Shift,” in which the unspoken expectation of housekeeping continues despite progress in women’s rights from the 1960s through the 1990s. This display is part of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, #BecauseOfHerStory.

 

Note to Editors: Media must register in advance by contacting the Office of Communications and Marketing at 202-633-3129 or at duffl@si.edu.

 

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