Women's History

A statue of Clementina Rind, a trailblazing publisher and printer who took over the Virginia Gazette after her husband's death, is featured in the Virginia Women's Monument.

Newly Discovered Letters Illuminate the Life of a Female Printer Who Published Revolutionary Texts and Pushed the Colonies Toward Independence

As Virginia's first female newspaper publisher, Clementina Rind emphasized women's viewpoints and collaborated with prominent politicians like Thomas Jefferson

Historian Martha S. Jones (bottom left) turned to ledgers, deeds, census records and government documents to unravel her family's story.

How a Leading Black Historian Uncovered Her Own Family's Painful Past—and Why Her Ancestors' Stories Give Her Hope

Martha S. Jones' new memoir draws on genealogical research and memories shared by relatives

The New Jersey Morning Call said Billy Possum had “a head that is likely to give a baby [a] nightmare.”

How a Stuffed Animal Named Billy Possum Tried—and Failed—to Replace the Teddy Bear as America's National Toy

In 1909, wealthy widow Susie W. Allgood marketed a plush marsupial inspired by President William Howard Taft. But children thought the toy looked "too much like a rat," and it sold poorly

A group of women sewing a quilt on the porch of a property in Georgia, May 1939

From the Antebellum South to the Civil Rights Movement, Black American Women Have Long Told Their Stories Through Quilts

In a new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, over 30 works showcase the significance of this quilting tradition

Researchers estimate the women were buried with more than 270,000 disc-shaped beads.

Why Were These Women Buried With More Than 270,000 Beads?

At a 5,000-year-old tomb in Spain, researchers found what is likely the largest known collection of beads ever discovered at a burial site

None

The Talented and Valiant Female Surgeon Who Joined Allied Forces in WWII and Broke Barriers Along the Way

Prohibited from serving with the U.S. Army as a medical officer, Barbara Stimson was commissioned by the British—and helped open the American military to female doctors

The crusading physician pictured circa 1915, just a few years after she began her game-changing research among industrial workers. 

How Alice Hamilton Waged a One-Woman Campaign to Get the Lead Out of Everything

At first a crusader for workplace safety, the trained physician railed against the use of the toxic and ubiquitous material

A Harper's Weekly illustration of Confederate soldiers driving Black Americans south in 1862

After Confederate Forces Captured Their Children, These Black Mothers Fought to Reunite Their Families

During the Civil War, Confederates targeted free Black people in the North, kidnapping them to sell into slavery. After the conflict ended, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones

A 1937 photograph of Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet secretary in American history

How the Nation's First 'Madam Secretary' Fought to Save Jewish Refugees Fleeing From Nazi Germany

A new book spotlights Frances Perkins' efforts to challenge the United States' restrictive immigration policies as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of labor

Researchers analyzed DNA from a rare Iron Age burial site in southwest England.

Scientists Discover Celtic Society Where Men Left Home to Join Their Bride's Community

DNA extracted from 57 individuals buried in a 2,000-year-old cemetery provides evidence of a "matrilocal" community in Iron Age Britain, a new study suggests

Zora Neale Hurston wanted to tell the world about the "real ... historical Herod, instead of the deliberately folklore Herod."

Why Was Zora Neale Hurston So Obsessed With the Biblical Villain Herod the Great?

The Harlem Renaissance author spent her last years writing about the ancient king. Six decades after her death, her unfinished novel has finally been published for the first time

Archaeologists unearthed roughly 1,500 decorated stone blocks that once made up part of Hatshepsut's valley temple.

Archaeologists Unearth Intricately Decorated Blocks From Hatshepsut's Temple in Egypt

Officials have announced a number of discoveries during excavations around the valley temple of the powerful Egyptian queen, who reigned during the 15th century B.C.E.

Works like Tissot's The Convalescent (1872), pictured here, reflect a sense of unease over a modernizing society that was sweeping women up in its fray.

These Stunning 19th-Century Artworks Reveal the Contradictions of the Modern Woman

A new exhibition spotlights James Tissot, whose paintings and prints reflected women’s ever-evolving roles in Victorian society

The new quarter design featuring Ida B. Wells, the suffragist, journalist and civil rights activist

These Five Trailblazing American Women Will Be Featured on Quarters in 2025

The U.S. Mint's American Women Quarters Program has announced its fourth and final group of honorees from throughout American history

Frances Perkins served as Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945.

Who Was Frances Perkins? Meet the Trailblazing Workers' Rights Advocate Whose Homestead Just Became a National Monument

Perkins was America’s first female cabinet secretary and the longest-serving Secretary of Labor

A worker sews a costume at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2021 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

A Woman Appeared on the English Stage for the First Time on This Day in 1660, Transforming the World of Theater Forever

Despite this historic first, the identity of the first professional English actress on stage remains a theatrical mystery

Kerry Washington stars as Charity Adams in Tyler Perry's newest film, The Six Triple Eight.

The Real Story Behind Netflix's 'The Six Triple Eight,' a New Tyler Perry Film About the Women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

The Black, female unit sorted through a massive backlog of undelivered mail, raising American soldiers' morale during World War II

This year's list includes Clouds in Space, The Manicurist's Daughter and The Ministry of Time.

The Best Books of 2024, as Chosen by Smithsonian Scholars

Staff at the Institution pick their favorite reads of the year, including riveting memoirs, fascinating true histories and fun fiction

Sigmund Freud in the office of his Vienna home in 1930

New Exhibition Unravels Sigmund Freud's Complex Relationship With the Women in His Life and Work

"Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists" spotlights the women who influenced the Austrian neurologist—and the field of psychoanalysis more broadly

The 300-carat necklace features 500 diamonds that likely came from India's Golconda mines.

See the Dazzling Diamond Necklace With Possible Ties to Marie Antoinette That Just Sold for $4.8 Million

Some of the gems may have featured in a royal scandal known as the "affair of the diamond necklace" that damaged the French queen’s reputation in 1785

Page 1 of 49