Women's History Month Week 1 Recap

ICYMI: Here's a recap for you featuring all the amazing women we shared about on our social media this week. 

March 1st: In 1972, at the age of 80, Alma Woodsey Thomas became the first African American woman artist to have a solo exhibition at one of America's most important museums, the Whitney Museum of American Art. To learn more about her and see her work, visit https://buff.ly/2GMuxza .

Photograph of Alma Thomas at Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition opening, 1972/unidentified photographer. Alma Thomas papers, circ 1894-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute.

March 2nd: Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican artist known for her self-portraits and bold, vibrant colors that depicted themes such as identity, the human body, and death. Her paintings illustrated Mexican and indigenous culture and the female experience and form. For deeper thoughts, read https://buff.ly/2EzKg2j. 

Portrait of Frida Kahlo on the patio of the Blue House, Coyoacan, Mexico, 195-?/Florence Arquin, photographer. Florence Arquin papers, 1923-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

March 4th: Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) was a leader of the women’s suffrage movement, a politician, feminist, and writer. She was the first woman to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm, to publish a newspaper, and in 1872, became the first woman to run for President of the United States as a candidate for the Equal Rights Party, supporting women’s suffrage and equal rights. 

March 5th: Grace Hopper (1906-1992) was an American computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, an early high level programming language still in use today. To learn more about her, visit https://buff.ly/2G267Cf . 

Lt. Hopper & Spec. White examining sequence mechanism, pre-August 1944; Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965. Archives Center, National Museum of American History

March 7th: Fatima Al-Fihri is known for establishing the world's oldest existing university. Founded in 859 CE, the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fes, Morocco, is still operating today. The Library of Al-Qarawiyyin is also considered the oldest in the world, preseving some of Islam's most valuable manuscripts including a 9th century Qur'an. 

University of al-Qarawiyyin fountain. (2010). Photography by Mike Prince via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/8hHNbG

March 8th: Late in life, Ynes Mexia (1870-1938) discovered a love of plants and became the lady Indiana Jones. She spent about a decade going on numerous expeditions to recover plant specimens throughout locations like Mexico, Alaska and the Amazon, collecting as many as 150,000 specimens, many of which were previously unknown! Read more about her here: https://buff.ly/2EuGUgS.

Kiernan, E. (2015). Late bloomer: The short, prolific career of Ynes Mexia. Retreived from https://www.nybg.org/blogs/science-talk/2015/02/late-bloomer-the-short-prolific-career-of-ynes-mexia

We hope you'll read more about them and be sure to check back next Saturday to see the next set of women we shared about!

Happy Reading,
Jade, Reference Librarian