Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Broad View of Women's History

Since March is Women's History Month, I did a quick search for museum resources.  Of course, I went first to Library of Congress, and of course, they host a Women's History Month site (http://www.womenshistorymonth.gov/).  Well, that'd be a great resource, but maybe you all are getting tired of Library of Congress' input on just about everything....  LOC is still my go-to for information with a plethora of information on a wealth of subjects.

But...I found a new museum (well, new to me) that focuses entirely on women's history. The National Women's History Museum (http://www.nwhm.org) is, for now, a virtual museum dedicated to expanding "our knowledge of American history." Women's contributions to historical events were overlooked or censored for years. The National Women's History Museum (NWHM) "will serve to place women's history along side current historical exhibitions." According to their "About Us" page (the source of the above quotes, as well), "We have been a privately funded institution since our founding. Once a physical site is established, we will apply to the Smithsonian for an affiliation. This will enable us to borrow objects from the Smithsonian's collections for use in exhibitions."

Their online exhibits are immense and cover a range of ethnic, historic and entertaining moments in history. I think adding this resource to any American history or social studies lesson would facilitate discussions about who writes history and why, as well as providing another perspective on events. Since I discovered the The Smithsonian National Postal Museum's online exhibit entitled "The Black Experience: African-Americans on Stamps" in January, I looked at a similar exhibit on the NWHM's site.  "Leaving Their Stamp on History" highlights the stories of women who have appeared on United States postage stamps.  Along with an image of the individual stamps, a brief biography is listed in the online exhibit.  A link at the bottom of some stories navigates readers to more information about the person or pertinent events covered in other areas of the NWHM site.

I think you'll find this a resource you'll return to for many things beyond Women's History Month.