Send in the Clowns
Lulu Adams came from a long, illustrious line of circus performers and was credited—even if wrongly—with being the world’s first female clown.
(Re)discovering Minerva Parker Nichols, Architect
The first American woman to establish an independent architectural practice, Minerva Parker Nichols built an unprecedented career in Philadelphia.
William Merritt Chase, the Accidental Ally
Painter William Merritt Chase opened an art school for a new generation of women, teaching them how to draw as well as how to advocate for themselves.
Lonely Diarist of the High Seas
As ship stewardess, Ella Sheldon tended to upper-crust women onboard and battled a range of workplace demons. Her journals tell her story.
Women Are Reclaiming Their Place in Baseball
Momentum continues to build in the movement to put women back where they belong: on the baseball diamond.
The Trailblazing Merze Tate
A celebrated historian of race and imperialism, Tate was an intrepid traveler who avidly shared her passion and meticulously documented her journeys.
How White Women Organized Against Lynching
In the 1930s, a coalition southern white women fought against lynching, disproving the idea that extrajudicial killings were intended to protect them.
Recruiting Warrior Queens for the Rani of Jhansi Regiment
Why did so many plantation workers in Burma, Malaya, and Singapore rush to join the all-woman Rani of Jhansi regiment of the Indian National Army?
Lesbians and the Lavender Scare
Lesbian relationships among government workers were seen as a threat to national security in the 1950s. But what constituted a lesbian relationship was an open question.
Eulalie Mandeville’s Fortune in Court Records
Court records can function as a kind of archive for those without any other paper trail in history: free people of color and the enslaved.