April 27, 2009

Exhibition" - "A Woman's Work is Never Done"


I think this is a great exhibition for anyone. Even though it's about women, you don't have to be a woman or a feminist to enjoy it. It's about women history in workplace before the American Revolution. The subject of "A Woman's Work is Never Done" is about their lives before they had equal rights and all that. In short, the site describes its exhibition as "A look at women's work, from before the American Revolution through the Industrial Revolution, using selected images from the Society's collection." It's a really nice site and in addition, it has nice illustrations too.

To clarify, this isn't an essay. It's a simple exhibition for anyone, especially people who are interested in the life of women during the 18th and early 19th century, I would think. The site is from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). This essay is fro 2004. I wish they had added more stuff since then. I'm sure there plenty of other information out there. They have some interesting photographs.

Short Explanations of the Photographs above

The woman in the far left is one of the most famous slave during the slavery years. Sojourner Truth, She was born ca. 1797 and worked as a slave in NY for different people until 1829. She was such a famous figure that I bet that she is in every book about slavery and women suffrage. She was also a self educated woman. I learned quite a bit about her when I took a class about slavery in college. She was incredible. This picture was taken ca. 1864. Those who wonder what Sojourner mean, it means "traveler". Her previous name was Isabella Baumfree .

The photograph on the top right is of a woman teacher. Those days many women who worked at the Sabbath school, were unpaid. Overall, there weren't many teachers who were women. This picture is actually a trade card of that the school, the Baptist Church in Boston that was established 1829,

The last picture on the bottom right shows a woman working on a Foudrinier Machine. A machine that was used in paper mills to make paper books. It was a popular job with women because it gave them a sense of independence and security. This image was taken in 1855.

A Woman's Work is Never Done
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Womanswork/index.htm

2 comments:

Georgia B. Barnhill said...

Thank you for this recognition. I encourage the readers of this blog to visit the Collections page of www.americanantiquarian.org to find other online exhibitions and descriptions of many, many collections including photographs, ephemera, and prints.
Georgia Barnhill, Curator of Graphic Arts

Daphna said...

Thank you for the comment. Yes, exhibitions can be fun and you can learn a lot and enjoy them. I do have several of them on my blog.

Again, thank you for leaving a comment.