How did the Revolution and living through the experience of war impact New York’s women—and how did women impact the Revolution in New York and beyond?
How did the Revolution and living through the experience of war impact New York’s women—and how did women impact the Revolution in New York and beyond?
Despite being written out of the story of the American Revolution and nation’s founding, women left indelible marks on both the fight for—and against—US Independence, and on the building blocks of the new nation. The Jean Margo Reid Center for Women’s History marks the United States’ semiquincentennial with a new exhibition that asks: How did the Revolution and living through the experience of war impact New York’s women—and how did women impact the Revolution in New York and beyond?
Subverting expectations about women’s involvement in the fight for independence, the exhibition marshalls The Historical's Museum and Patricia D. Klingenstein Library collections to break new narrative ground, including love letters, poems, petitions and military correspondence, archeological objects, paintings, household objects, and more.
Ahead of the exhibition, on March 1, the 11th annual Diane and Adam E. Max Conference on Women’s History will consider how understanding the Revolutionary period—and women’s lives and experiences within its struggles—can help us better understand the American story.
Curated by Anna Danziger Halperin, director for the Center for Women's History, Tessa Bangs, Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Women’s History and Public History, Isabelle Held, Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender and LGBTQ+ History, and Rachel Pitkin and Lauren Cain, both Mellon Foundation Predoctoral Awardees in Women's History
Support for Revolutionary Women is provided by Joyce B. Cowin.
Exhibitions at The New York Historical are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.
Media sponsor:
![John Dickinson, A Declaration [. . .] Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity [of] Taking up Arms (Philadelphia: Bradford, 1775). Photograph by Vincent Dilio. Courtesy of David M. Rubenstein.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd17xep5pb0e8k3.cloudfront.net%2FaJOU2KTt2nPbZ7gB_15-04092025_a_declaration_by_representatives_of_united_colonies_philadelphia_1775_C_001b.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat%252Ccompress%26rect%3D291%252C1814%252C3548%252C1602%26w%3D2000%26h%3D903%26q%3D80&w=1200&q=75)
![John Dickinson, A Declaration [. . .] Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity [of] Taking up Arms (Philadelphia: Bradford, 1775). Photograph by Vincent Dilio. Courtesy of David M. Rubenstein.](https://d17xep5pb0e8k3.cloudfront.net/aJOU2KTt2nPbZ7gB_15-04092025_a_declaration_by_representatives_of_united_colonies_philadelphia_1775_C_001b.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&rect=291%2C1814%2C3548%2C1602&w=2000&h=903&q=80)
