Women

Short Teaching Module: Portraying Women Workers: Beyond Norma Rae
Starting at the turn of the twentieth century, U.S. and insular government offices and textile and garment businesses incorporated women of the New South and Puerto Rico into manufacturing in distinct yet interrelated ways.

Norma Rae: Depicting Women's Labor History through Film
In this still shot from the movie Norma Rae, two pretty and petite white actors represent southern mill hands. Norma, portrayed by the famous actress Sally Field, stands with her mother (Barbara Baxley).

Puerto Rican Needleworkers in a Factory, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1942
This government photograph provides an important contrast to the popular culture images of poor southern whites. During the 1940s and 1950s, U.S. government agencies hired photographers to travel the main island of Puerto Rico to capture the conditions of working people.

Quilted bedcover of Elisabeth Chapman
This quilted bed cover was likely made for the marriage of John and Elisabeth Chapman on September 19, 1829.

The Love Letter by Jan Vermeer
Painted in the last phase of his career, Dutch artist Jan Vermeer’s The Love Letter is a work of oil on canvas that depict

"Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday (1939)
Based on a poem by Abel Meeropol published in January 1937, “Strange Fruit” was a song protesting the lynching of African America

Yamamoto Shunshō’s The Tale of Genji
Largely considered the first novel, The Tale of Genji was written by Murasaki Shikibu, a noblewoman and lady-in-waiting du

“Big Business Banishes the Flapper"
The “flapper” craze overtook the western world in the early 1920s and was spearheaded by young women intent on bucking cultural n

Kasai Velvet, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Despite its name, Kasai velvet, or velours du kasai, is not actually a velvet.

Tomoe Gozen
Tomoe Gozen was a Japanese female samurai that lived during the late twelfth century, or late Heian period, in Japan.