Cambridge Women's Heritage Project (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

05/20/2021

THIS THURSDAY! Do you know the feminist history of Cambridge's community spaces from the 1970s-1990s? On May 20, come learn more about the Cambridge Women’s Commission, YWCA Cambridge, Bread and Roses, and Marquee Bar (there hasn't been a women's bar in Cambridge or Boston in decades!) Register: https://cambridgema.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpcuyuqTMtGN3AByAVYIXk5MITDZ55CMTA

01/06/2021

Tomorrow at 12pm, register in advance!

Please join us this Thursday, January 7, for a lunchtime discussion on COVID-19's Economic and Social Impact on Women in Massachusetts

10/19/2020

Since 1901, only 12 poets have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and only of those poets two were women. Last week, the Swedish Academy awarded American poet and Cambridge resident Louise Glück the Nobel Prize in Literature. Glück is one of the amazing women featured in our the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project. She has published 12 collections of poetry and received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Bollingen Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Humanities Medal. She is the first American female poet to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Congratulations to her and all of this year’s winners, including astronomer and black hole hunter Andrea Ghez, a 1987 MIT graduate and this year’s Nobel Prize winner in Physics for her work with Reinhard Genzel on the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of the Milky Way.
Photos of Louise Glück by Katherine Wolkoff. Photo of Milky Way Central Region by European Southern Observatory/Nogueras-Lara et al.

09/28/2020

RSVP here! eventbrite.com/e/bringing-cambridge-womens-heritage-to-life-with-radio-drama-tickets-121428444747

Tuesday, October 13...
Calling all fans of detectives, suffragists, mediums, bootleggers, secret society members, movie directors, journalists, civil rights advocates, labor organizers, and vaudeville impresarios!

Siobhan Bredin, author of "Casebook of the Marshall Sisters Detective Agency: Nine Roaring Twenties Mystery Play Scripts", will lead a discussion on the history and mystery of radio drama, all through the lens of Cambridge women's history. Inspired by historical figures in Cambridge, the fictional Marshall Sisters work for social justice by solving cases alongside a quirky cast of characters.
RSVP!! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bringing-cambridge-womens-heritage-to-life-with-radio-drama-tickets-121428444747
7-8pm via zoom

07/31/2020

Cambridge Women's Commission is hosting a Summer Series, Wednesday August 5 and August 12 at 7pm. Here's the link to register for the first one, and the link for the second event is in the comments. I'll repost it next week! Hope to see everyone there! If you are interested in women's history and love Cambridge, please join us! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lifting-up-cambridge-womxns-history-out-of-the-archives-into-the-streets-tickets-114796998914

07/31/2020

07/26/2020

What does the right to vote mean to you? This year we have been looking at the woman suffrage movement and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment one hundred years ago. It wasn’t the end of a movement for universal voting rights but an important milestone in that movement that continues to this day. Many Cambridge women made their voices heard, some becoming politically active for the first time. How should they be remembered? What is the role of public art in initiating conversation and inspiring political engagement in our community?

Your input on a permanent public artwork to commemorate the centennial of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and to recognize the ongoing struggle for voting rights for all.

The City of Cambridge's 19th Amendment Centennial Art Selection Committee will be considering four proposals. The winning selection will be constructed at Cambridge Common. During this historic moment in which public art has become a focal point for necessary debate on how we as a country want to be represented in public spaces, we invite you to participate in the process for a new public artwork. Your voice makes a difference.

Review the four proposals online and submit your feedback to the Selection Committee by Aug. 3, 2020. https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/CityManagersOffice/100years/NineteenthAmendmentCentennialCommittee

Cambridge is celebrating the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment and recognizing the women in Cambridge who fought tirelessly for women’s right to vote.

07/23/2020

Repost from Instagram. During the month of July, we are taking the time to celebrate artists of color who have brought life to public spaces in Cambridge.

Today, we are highlighting Valerie Imparato and her mural on the Harvard Square Kiosk, recently taken over by CultureHouse.

Valerie Imparato is originally from Haiti but has lived all over the world. Valerie attended Law School after college and due to stress, she began having sleeping issues, but painting helped her cope. She started painting on a regular basis, filling her tiny Cambridge apartment with her work. To offload the growing collection, she decided to start showing and selling her pieces. Fast forward to a few years later and she is both a practicing lawyer and an artist. Valerie’s aesthetic draws from the diverse cultural influences in her upbringing, with an emphasis on East-African and Caribbean art. She hopes to make art that inspires dialogue on issues of Faith, Race, immigration, feminism, and the plight of the oppressed. Her most recent work is focused on the Black Woman and all of the identities folded within the intersectionality of blackness and womanhood, seen in her recent Harvard Square mural. Regarding her mural at the Harvard Square Kiosk, Valerie notes, “I hope [my mural] catches the eye of little kids, little black kids in particular, and that they see themselves. I hope that it makes Black people feel seen, and helps non-Black people see us”. With racial and ethnic disparities being brought to the forefront in American society, having a mural of three black women, painted by a black woman, in one of the most iconic and affluent commercial areas in America is a powerful statement in itself. Be sure to check out Valerie’s other work on her Instagram and advocate for diversity in public art in Cambridge and beyond! Photo of Valerie in front of mural courtesy of CultureHouse and , photo of Valerie by and photo of mural by (websites of VP Visual Art and Katytarika linked in comments).

05/22/2020

This week is and we want to celebrate some amazing Cambridge women who work for the Emergency Communications Department. Image 1: Supervisor Crystal Betts is a longtime Cambridge resident and has over 30 years of service to the City, beginning as a Cambridge Police Department Dispatcher and working for the last ten years as an ECC Supervisor. Image 2: Retired Emergency Telecommunications Dispatcher Brenda Gilchrist was born and raised in Cambridge and served the City for 25 years, first as a Police Dispatcher and then as a Emergency Communications dispatcher, providing medical instruction for callers. Image 3: Anneta Penta was recently promoted to Supervisor in January of this year, having served for twenty five years. Paula Snow is Assistant Director of Operations and began her career over 30 years ago as a Cambridge MA Fire Department Alarm Operator. Image 4: Emergency Telecommunications Dispatcher Chrstine Albertson has been with the Department for nearly twenty years. Thanks to all Cambridge's first responders, staff, EMTs, paramedics!!!!
Pro EMS

05/22/2020

Please join us on Wednesday, May 27, for a dynamic discussion on Intergenerational Feminism. See instructions below on how to view Left on Pearl and also participate in our panel discussion!

05/21/2020

May is National Chamber Music Month and we celebrate Nadia Boulanger, teacher of music theory and composition and conductor. Nadia taught at Longy School of Music of Bard College from 1940 to 1945. As a musician, she possessed a perfect ear and phenomenal memory. At the age of ten, she entered the Paris Conservatory. However, despite her considerable talent for composition, she felt overshadowed by her younger sister Lili, who at an early age won the Grand Prix de Rome (the first woman to do so). Lili died at the age of 24. Nadia then made the choice to be a teacher of composition for which she is best known today. In her lifetime she taught such twentieth-century American composers as Leonard Bernstein, Elliot Carter, Aaron Copeland, Irving Fine and Philip Glass. Her chamber music compositions include: 3 pièces, organ, 1911, arr. cello, piano, 3 pièces, piano, 1914, Pièce sur des airs populaires flamands, organ, 1917, Vers la vie nouvelle, piano, 1917. Listen to pianist Artis Wodehouse play one of her compositions. Image 1: Nadia and Lili Boulanger, 1913, source Agence Meurisse. Image 2: Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) on board a transatlantic steamer in 1937.Source Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqnELfXTAe8

05/18/2020

This past weekend came to a close, and we want to say a special thanks to the Cambridge Police Department for their ongoing commitment to a very important initiative to . In February of this year, the City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Women's Commission, Transition House, the Cambridge Housing Authority, BARCC, the Cambridge Police, and other community leaders celebrated five years of the Domestic and Gender Based Violence Prevention Initiative (DGBVPI), which seeks to change attitudes, behaviors and policies and develop strategies and resources to prevent and respond to domestic violence in Cambridge. This initiative was built on efforts that began in 1994 with the establishment of the Cambridge Domestic Violence Free Zone (DVFZ), passed by the Cambridge City Council in 1994 and led by former City Councilor Katherine Triantafillou. In 2011, in an effort to reinvigorate the Domestic Violence focus in Cambridge, (Former) City Councilor Marjorie Decker, now a State Representative, held a community forum, launched a survey and began a DV awareness campaign. In 2014, the City of Cambridge created a new position to coordinate efforts for the DGBVPI, and Elizabeth Speakman has led this initiative since then. Cambridge is also participating in the groundbreaking Start by Believing campaign. Learn more about these initiatives by visiting the City’s DGBVPI website which includes historical documents about how the initiative began and grew. https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/domesticandgenderbasedviolencepreventioninitiative

05/09/2020

In addition to celebrating teachers and nurses this week, we also recognize . This past year, we added new biographies to our project, including Former Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis. Davis began her career in neighborhood planning for the City as well as working as a journalist. From 1987 to 1995, she served four terms on the School Committee, where she focused on developing the science curriculum and AIDS prevention. Davis also was a founder and co-chair of the Healthy Children’s Task Force, an early and successful initiative for its time. In 1994, Davis was elected to the Cambridge City Council, and served eight terms, including two as the City’s Vice Mayor. Her efforts resulted in Cambridge’s adoption of a Green Building policy for new buildings, and the Cambridge Compact for a Sustainable Future and the Net Zero Task Force. Davis was elected the Mayor of the City of Cambridge in 2012, serving for two years. During her term, Davis focused on pedestrian and bicycling safety, neighborhood preservation, housing and issues especially important to children and seniors. She also fostered partnerships between MIT, Harvard, business and community organizations to work on issues related to urban planning, sustainable development and STEAM education. Image 1: Henrietta Davis photographed by Richard Bock. Image 2: portrait of Henrietta Davis by Grace DeVito in City Hall Sullivan Chamber.

05/04/2020

In honor of teacher appreciation week, we celebrate Maria Louise Baldwin (1856 - 1922), for whom the Baldwin school in Cambridge is named. Born in Cambridge, Maria Baldwin was educated in the Cambridge Public School, graduating from Cambridge High School in 1874. She graduated from Cambridge Teachers’ Training School thze following year. In 1882, pressure from the Cambridge African-American community resulted in the hiring of Baldwin as a primary school teacher at Agassiz Grammar School at 28 Sacramento Street. Seven years later, she was appointed principal of that school, the first black woman to be appointed as a principal in Massachusetts. Later, in 1916, when a new, larger building was built, she was appointed master of the school. Always interested in new learning, she took many courses at Harvard and other schools throughout her life. She lectured widely to both Euro-American and African American organizations. Her best-known presentation was her lecture on Harriet Beecher Stowe, which she first delivered as the Annual Washington's Birthday celebration at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1897. She was the first African American and the first woman to be invited to present this annual lecture. She taught poet E.E. Cummings, who wrote in his 1953 book, i- six nonlectures: “Her very presence emanated an honour and a glory: the honour of spiritual freedom—not mere freedom from—and the glory of being, not (like most extant mortals) really undead but actually alive. From her I marvellingly learned that the truest power is gentleness.” The Agassiz school in Cambridge was rebuilt in 1995 and on May 21st, 2002, the Cambridge School Committee unanimously voted to rename the Agassiz School to the Maria L. Baldwin School in her honor. The Library of Congress recently digitized Portraits of Nineteenth Century African American Women Activists, including Baldwin. Interestingly, many of the activists, like Baldwin, were also teachers. Image 1: Maria Baldwin, source public domain. Image 2: Elmer Chickering, ca 1885. Image Image 3: Maria L. Baldwin School, Cambridge, courtesy of CPS. https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2017/03/portraits-of-nineteenth-century-african-american-women-activists-newly-available-online/

03/11/2020

Repost from Cambridge Historical Commission blog and Instagram page: Today’s post comes from our Lewis Family Collection. The Lewis family is most notable for their contributions during the 19th century and their efforts in various socio-political African American movements. This collection fills a gap in the historical record by including Lewis family photos from the 20th century. It also includes many images where women are the subject matter. To find out more about the women shown here, their relationships, and other people connected to the collection, check out our Lewis Family Collection album on Flickr (recently added) and today’s blog post about the collection! As a sneak peek, here’s some info on these images: Image 2: Aury and Bess. Bess, or Elizabeth E. Lewis, worked as a bookkeeper in Cambridge. She was the daughter of Nancy and George W. Lewis. Image 3: Vic Blackwell, Nora Wingfield, Bessie Lewis, Leila Stubbs, 1910. Bessie was another nickname for Elizabeth E Lewis. This image was taken the year she married Maurice J Brooks. The other ladies are likely her bridesmaids.Image 4: The identities of these two dapper ladies are unknown but we have educated guesses about who they are. We’re working on determining if they are Elizabeth and Ethel Lewis. Image 5: Ethel A. Lewis, Elizabeth’s sister. She worked as a stenographer before moving to Baltimore to become a schoolteacher. https://cambridgehistoricalcommission.wordpress.com

03/11/2020

Two posts today! First, throughout March CDC HIV and Start Talking. Stop HIV. are celebrating National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day! Shed light on the importance of prevention, care and treatment, by sharing information and empowering women and girls to learn more about the importance of HIV prevention, care, and treatment.

Pictured here is Mary Anne Bodecker (1929 - 2007), whose bio is in the Cambridge Women's Heritage Project. She dedicated her life’s work to helping women with AIDS after the death of her son Torsten, who contracted the disease in the early 1980s, and died in 1992. Torsten’s work on behalf of of HIV programs inspired Mary Anne to do the same. She set up the first case management program in the country to work with incarcerated women with AIDS at the Massachusetts State Prison for Women at Framingham and then helped to found a home for formerly homeless women with HIV/AIDS in 1990 at Rush House. For more than five years, she was a social worker in the AIDS Clinic at Cambridge Hospital. To understand the world wide impact of the disease, she traveled to AIDS clinics in Nepal and India and then to South Africa. Pictured here in an October 8, 1989 Boston Globe article titled “Double Sentence” by Nancy Waring, the caption reads: “Mary Anne Bodecker, case manager for the community-run Women and Aids Project, confers with a client at MCI-Framingham.” https://www.cdc.gov/stophivtogether/

03/04/2020

TONIGHT! Jen Deaderick presents She The People
Wednesday, March 4, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Main Library Community Room
449 Broadway
SHE THE PEOPLE: A Graphic History of Uprisings, Breakdowns, Setbacks, Revolts, and Enduring Hope on the Unfinished Road to Women's Equality

Jen Deaderick presents She The People
Wednesday, March 4, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Main Library Community Room
449 Broadway

SHE THE PEOPLE: A Graphic History of Uprisings, Breakdowns, Setbacks, Revolts, and Enduring Hope on the Unfinished Road to Women's Equality, is an illustrated history of women’s citizenship in the US from 1776 to now. Journalist, historian, and activist, Jen Deaderick takes on the campaign for change by offering a cheekily illustrated, sometimes sarcastic, and all-too-true account of women's evolving rights and citizenship. She takes readers on a walk down the ERA's rocky road to become part of our Constitution by highlighting changes in the legal status of women alongside the significant cultural and social influences of the time. Women's history is revealed as an integral part of U.S. history, and not a tangential sideline.

Jen Deaderick has written about gender and citizenship for the New York Times, the Huffington Post, Experience, and Dame. She is also a regular contributor on WGBH’s news show, Greater Boston. Since 2008, she has run the largest Equal Rights Amendment page on Facebook.

This event is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Women's Commission as part of our Women's History Month programming.

03/02/2020

Don't miss this event tomorrow (and stay tuned for another great event on Wednesday): Tuesday, March 3
“In the Room”: Women of Color Doulas in a State of Emergency, An Evening with Dr. Jennifer Nash
6:30pm, Cambridge Main Library, Lecture Hall

TOMORROW!
Jennifer Nash presents “In the Room”: Women of Color Doulas in a State of Emergency
Tuesday, March 3, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Main Library Lecture Hall
449 Broadway

Women of Color Doulas in a State of Emergency
​​​​​​"In the Room” explores the work of women of color doulas laboring in Chicago in an era where doulas are increasingly hailed—by the state and by activists—as precisely the innovation that can save black mothers’ lives. Professor Nash's analysis draws on twenty-three interviews she conducted in 2018 with birth doulas—many of whom describe themselves as “bodyguards”-- working in the Chicago metropolitan area. She explores the complicated tensions around professionalization and the medicalization of birth that underpins their practice, and considers the place of their work in the ongoing effort to eradicate black infant and maternal mortality.

Jennifer C. Nash is an associate professor of African American studies and gender and sexuality studies at Northwestern University and a ACLS Frederick Burkhardt Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard. Nash’s work centers on black feminist theory, black sexual politics, race and visual culture, and theories of intersectionality. Nash is the author of The Black Body in Ecstasy (Duke University Press, 2014) and Black Feminism Reimagined (Duke University Press, 2019). Her work has appeared in American Quarterly, Feminist Review, Feminist Studies, Feminist Theory, GLQ, Signs, and Social Text. She earned her PhD in African American studies from Harvard University, her JD from Harvard Law School, and her AB in women’s studies from Harvard College.

This event is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Women's Commission and presented as part of our Women's History Month programming.