“¡Ataca Yomo!”: A close-up look at Yomo Toro’s cuatro
“¡Ataca Yomo! (Attack Yomo!),” shouts singer Héctor Lavoe as the bright notes of what sounds like a guitar solo start flying by our ears in...
What is it like to seek asylum in the United States?
Why do people leave their homelands to establish lives in other countries? What factors do people consider in leaving behind their...
One flag–and the two soldiers who carried it
Unassuming at first glance, a U.S. flag that recently joined our museum's collection brings together the remarkable stories of two U.S....

Blog Posts in "Women's History"

A group of menstrual products in their original packaging, including tampons, sanitary napkins, a menstrual cup, and a sanitary belt.
Introducing the MUM Menstrual History Collection
Tampons. Sanitary napkins and belts. Menstrual cups, sponges, and other period products. Women and girls around the world depend on these...
Cards with visitor messages, which range from "Like most girls in my generation, I babysat as soon as I turned 10" to "Only babysitting. I hated it."
What does babysitting mean to girls? It's complicated.
Two different guests linger at the Talk Back table at the end of the exhibition Girlhood (It’s complicated). Each one picks up a pen to...
Jill Biden’s ensemble from the 2021 inauguration's swearing-in ceremony. The ensemble’s dress, and coat are ocean blue. The tweed dress’s neckline is decorated with Swarovski pearls and crystals.
New dresses, new traditions: Jill Biden’s inaugural ensembles go on view
Today first lady Jill Biden came to our museum to present her inaugural ensembles to the national collection and see them placed on...
A woman’s blue American Women’s Voluntary Services uniform jacket and shirt posed on a mannequin torso. The uniform includes a large shoulder bag decorated with badges and pins. 
Betty White's shoulder bag is a time capsule of World War II
On December 31, 2021, the beloved actress Betty Marion White Ludden (1922–2021) passed away at 99 years old, weeks shy of her hundredth...
The Talk Back section of the exhibition Girlhood: It's complicated
Girls talk back on questions of body autonomy
“Has someone else ever made a decision that affected your body?”This is one of the questions the creators of the exhibition Girlhood (It’s...
Six cards with visitor messages that invoke girl power.
Talking back with girl power
Since “Girlhood: It's complicated” opened in 2020, hundreds of visitors have made “Girl Power” a part of their messages to the museum.What...
Ita Aber
How a Jewish female textile artist folded her identities into a challah cover
Food plays a critical role in many Jewish religious festivities, such as challah bread at weekly Shabbat services or holidays. Whether...
Poster showing a woman worker in a jumpsuit and bandana rolling up her right sleeve. Above her head is a speech bubble with the text, "We Can Do It!"
Rosie, Wendy, and Government Girls: The women behind the war
Poster, “Soldiers without guns.” Courtesy of Library of Congress (2002719121)In 1943, faced with labor shortages during World War II, U.S....
Martha Raye in conversation with members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Raye and the soldiers sit outside on benches.
“Maggie of the Boondocks”: Martha Raye and a lifetime of service to the U.S. Armed Forces
Around 1966, Dr. Carl Bartecchi was serving as an army flight surgeon in the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. When units in his area engaged...
A woman delivers a presentation in front of a large group of seated people. The stage is filled with various electrical appliances, as well as a large banner with the text, "Electricity, your helper, convenient, safe, economical," as well as as a smaller poster titled "Electric Cooking ABCs."
Refrigerators and women’s empowerment: The “peaceful revolution” of rural electrification
Louisan Mamer, known as the First Lady of the REA, spearheaded the expansion of women’s roles in business and leadership through her work...
Dozens of women seated behind rows of desks in a large office space
Just like “planning a dinner”? The feminization of computer programming
In 1967, the magazine Cosmopolitan featured an article about the growing number of job opportunities for women in computer programming. In...
Los Boricuas jersey, with initials SS, the team name, and the the team's cartoon mascot, a stylized coqui frog in a baseball uniform and helmet, standing at bat
Suit up! Honoring Latino heritage on the field
Custom uniforms display cultural pride and signal Latino presence and excellence in baseball, America’s pastime. The colorful jerseys and...
Anna Dickinson, seated
Meet Anna Dickinson: Trailblazing orator and political firebrand
On a Saturday evening in January 1864, abolitionist Anna Dickinson stood inside the Hall of Representatives looking out into the U.S. House...
Group of people led by Dr. Marie Curie and President Harding walking down steps at the White House
Radium and the Gift from the Women of America
One hundred years ago Marie Curie stood among the rose bushes, the press, and a crowd of White House guests, holding a golden key. The key...
Case showing changes in girls' uniforms in exhibition, Girlhood: It's complicated
Why Girlhood?
"Girlhood (It’s complicated)" opened to the public on October 9, 2020.Three years ago our museum convened a diverse group of scholars and...
Detail of ten dollar note showing illustration of an interiror iron foundry with figures working
Rebecca Lukens: A woman of iron
A sudden tragedy thrust Rebecca Lukens into the family business and into history, making her the nation’s first woman industrialist and the...
Jessica Govea
How one girl helped build a Latinx civil rights movement
As a little girl, Jessica Govea had become accustomed to rising early and making her way to the fields with her family. During the cotton...
Isabella Aiukli Cornell’s prom dress
Isabella Aiukli Cornell makes prom political
For many high school students in the United States, prom is considered one of the most highly anticipated events of the school year....
Sponges of diverse shapes and colors arranged in a line
Rea Ann Silva: The woman behind Beautyblender
While the iconic egg-shaped Beautyblender sponge is wildly popular and used by makeup professionals and everyday people from all...
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
"They called me 'race traitor'": Joan Trumpauer Mulholland's lifetime of resistance
Last year I began working as a stage manager for Join the Student Sit-Ins, an interactive theater program at the museum set in 1960. The...
Chef Lena Richard and others filming a television segment
Chef Lena Richard: Culinary Icon and Activist
Lena Richard was an African American chef who built a culinary empire in New Orleans during the Jim Crow era. She reshaped public...
Anti-Suffrage pendant
Why a social activist opposed woman suffrage
The trouble began soon after well-known social reformer Emily Bissell had finished her remarks at the meeting of the National Association...
Mary Walker
Mary Walker, the "Original New Woman"
Mary Edwards Walker defied convention in just about everything she did. Walker was uncompromising in her beliefs about herself and the...
Science and political protest: A Q&A with Dr. Florence Haseltine
In March 1995, Ladies Home Journal named Dr. Florence Haseltine one of the ten most important women in medicine. Haseltine, currently...
Pennies and nickels add up to success: Maggie Lena Walker
Maggie Lena Walker was one of the most important Black businesswomen in the nation, and today too few people have heard of her.Maggie Lena...
A line of people wait outside the Baltimore branch of the NAACP in 1843
Does an amendment give you the right to vote?
In 2020, the Fifteenth Amendment—the first voting rights amendment added to the U.S. Constitution—celebrates its 150th anniversary. You’ve...
A winning design: Prang’s Christmas card contests of the 1880s
Have you ever wondered how companies pick their holiday card designs? How do they know what will sell? During the 1880s, Boston...
Skateboard
A place at the park: LGBTQ+ inclusion and skateboarding
When you think about the culture around skateboarding, you might think about the laid-back vibe of acceptance and inclusion that the sport...
A heart shaped content
How Evelyn Lauder took on breast cancer at the cosmetics counter
They had just arrived in a foreign country and the small girl’s mother was sent away.  Ernest and Mimi Hausner fled their home in...
American history must-reads of 2018
These are our most fascinating blog posts of 2018, according to our readers.When FBI agents showed up with a pair of sparkly, red shoesA...
Lace with U.S. seal
Why do we have a National Lace Collection?
Safely cared for in the collections of the National Museum of American History are about 6,000 examples of hand- and machine-made lace from...
Grace Hopper examines a computer at work.
Grace under pressure
On December 7, 1941, two days before her 35th birthday, Grace Murray Hopper, an associate professor of mathematics at Vassar College, was...
A book of poetry
The literary Luisa Moreno
Curators at the National Museum of American History often rely on scholars in the field to illuminate new areas of collection and research...
Multiple layer cake
Place on the plate: Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay
"Regions Reimagined," the theme for this year's Smithsonian Food History Weekend, will explore the power of place and the...
What you may not know about the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire
Shirtwaist made by Fisk, Clark & Flagg, about 1910.Shirtwaists, tailored blouses of the 1890s and early 1900s, became especially...
Photo of album cover featuring Aretha Franklin shown in four reflections with stained glass background
Reflecting on the Queen of Soul's reign in American culture
Today we're reflecting on the life of singer, songwriter, diva, civil rights activist, and cultural icon Aretha Franklin. Over 100 of...
Total eclipse of the sun, partial eclipse of inequality
"It was now quick work," Maria Mitchell noted. "As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all around the sun, so...
Sheets wearing the Special Olympics oath on his shirt with Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Courtesy of Dave Sheets.
Special Olympics at 50
"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics, recited this oath at...
A white doily with blue embroidery.
Entrepreneurial embroiderers
Embroidery by the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework is beautiful . . . but that's just the beginning of the story. These...
A woman with styled hair leans out a window.
The case of Luisa Moreno
In my first week as a curator at the National Museum of American History, I made a list of women I wished were present in the museum's...
Portrait of Madam C. J. Walker, taken in 1915
Madam C. J. Walker’s philanthropy
A former laundress who became a millionaire from her hair-care company, Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919) was a leading philanthropist of the...
Woodcut showing figures playing baseball
Helen West Heller: artist, poet, activist
She found symmetry in baseball. She made a triptych celebrating American agriculture. Her portraits featured the work of human hands, her...
A blue vase with art nouveau style flowers around the lip.
A story in clay: Sara Galner and the Saturday Evening Girls
I didn't drool on the objects, but exploring the ceramics storage room as an intern at the National Museum of American History was pretty...
A white debutante gown with an empire waste and fabric flowers around the neckline.
Sewing for joy: Ann Lowe
"I was 17 years old at the time and the dress made me feel so grown up and beautiful," Pauline "Polly" Carver Duxbury wrote about the dress...
Wooden Gavel
Madam Speaker: A famous first joins the national collection
Museums are full of “firsts”—objects that represent the first person to complete a task, to win an award, to hold a position, to achieve a...
A statue of Lucretia Mott
Abolitionist and Reformer Lucretia Mott
January 3, 2018, would have been Lucretia Coffin Mott’s 225th birthday. When it came to birthdays, Mott had a particular way of celebrating...
A grey skirt suit, with a bolero jacket and a black belt.
From seams to strikes: Exploring women at work through clothing in our collection
What was life like for women in the workforce over the past 150 years? To help answer that question, I turned to the museum’s...
Two Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders uniforms, complete with blue and white tops and shorts, decorated with stars
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders donate iconic uniforms to the museum’s sports collection
In 1976, I was an 11-year-old girl who had always wanted to be a cheerleader, and the only part of Super Bowl X that caught my attention...

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