The New York Public Library Celebrates Women’s History Month

Photo by John Angel on Unsplash

The institution unveiled reading recommendations, a select tour of its Polonsky Exhibition of Treasures exhibition focused on women’s history, a new member of its librarian “Hall of Femme”, exhibitions, and events for all ages throughout Manhattan, Bronx, and Staten Island. 

The institution is also offering a series of free events (both virtual and in-person) focused on women’s history.

Following this year’s National Women’s History Month theme of celebrating women who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling – the New York Public Library is celebrating women’s milestones in making, stewarding, and documenting history. 

More details on initiatives are below:

• Introduction of Roberta Saltzman, Assistant Chief of the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division, into the NYPL “Hall of Femme” on the 10-year remembrance of her death. Over the years, Saltzman accumulated over 700 Jewish cookbooks, with a particular focus on community cookbooks from small-town America. The collection, built mostly from Saltzman’s money, was donated to the Dorot Jewish Division before her death.
• The Schomburg Center celebrates over 30 years of centering Black women in jazz! Catch renowned and emerging artists such as Lizz Wright and The Original Pinettes Brass Band, plus an opening night curated by drummer Shirazette Tintin (presented by Jazzmobile, Inc. and executive producer Robin Bell-Stevens). The 2023 festival will be held in person on Mondays March 6,13, and 20 – tickets are available on Eventbrite.
• The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts celebrates the long and colorful career of costume designer Willa Kim in her first-ever major retrospective exhibition, The Wondrous Willa Kim: Costume Designs for Actors and Dancers. Kim’s archive was acquired by the Library in 2017. The show features an assortment of designs and costumes from her long and prolific career, including work from productions like Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, The Will Rogers Follies, and her final Broadway show, Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews. 
• LIVE from NYPL, the New York Public Library’s premier cultural series will feature conversations including Patriarchy Smasher: Angela Saini, Meredith Broussard: Bias Is More than a Glitch, and Jane and Anna Maria Porter: The Most Famous Novelists You’ve Never Read.
• The Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures, the first-ever permanent exhibition of over 250 unique and rare items from the Library’s research collections, features several items tied to women’s history.
  • A new self-guided tour developed by the Library (also available in the Bloomberg Connects app) themed around showcasing women storytellers in many forms, from arts and media to advocacy, gives visitors an opportunity to focus on those objects during a visit to the free exhibition. Objects on the tour, among others, include:
    • Nella Larsen’s Passing
    • Patricia Zipprodt’s costume designs for Tevye and his daughters in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof​​​​
    • Poster for Sarah Bernhardt and Company
    • Primavera costume worn by Isadora Duncan
    • Portrait of Susan B. Anthony
    • Portrait of Sojourner Truth
    • “Gay Power—When Do We Want It? Or Do We?” flyer
    • Charlotte Brontë’s manuscript of “Adventures of Ernest Alembert”
    • 1881 edition of Mother Goose with Kate Greenaway’s illustrations
    • Doris Ulmann’s photograph of a baptism

About The New York Public Library

For 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.