Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) was one of the most important architectural designers of the early 20th century, and made her reputation with large-scale murals in a pronounced Art Deco style. Born in Flushing, Queens, New York City, Meière was influenced in her artistic career by a year of study in Florence, where she received training and
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Julia Morgan is an American architect we all should know about. Her career spanned decades in the first half of the 20th century, and the mark she made – with over 700 commissioned buildings– defined the contours of northern Californian architecture. Because she was a woman and because of her reticent personality, her work was
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Here is the Late Medieval ideal of the most beautiful woman imaginable, and I want to draw your attention to her hair – specifically where it isn’t. Yes, Bathsheba’s golden locks, seen in this exquisite late 15th-c illumination, trail down her back in full glory, but also check out her pubes, or not – because
Female Pubic Hair and its Removal in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe Read More »
Women’s interest in birth control can be traced back in time as far as historical records permit. This Ancient Egyptian condom might date from the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Not shown – because we only have a description in the Kahun Medical Papyrus from 1825 BCE – is a pessary (a mixture of substances inserted into the
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Both birth control and abortion were common practices in the Ancient Mediterranean world. Although many examples of imperfect methods exist in our sources, (for instance, in the fourth century BCE Hyppocrates suggested that prostitutes wanting to abort should jump up and down, slamming their heels into their glutes) there were effective ways of ending or
Island of Cyrene Coin Read More »
The Heraea was an Ancient Greek holiday featuring sporting events with women participants. Done in honor of Hera, the goddess of fertility, the competitors raced each other for prizes. The runner featured here is a Spartan, and she wears the short tunic and one-shoulder garment typical for that city-state.
The women in these murals from the New Kingdom Era of Ancient Egypt 16th-11th centuries BCE are wearing perfume cones on their heads. Flowers and aromatic spices such as Jasmine and frankincense were cold-pressed into lard or beeswax. The cones would have been worn for special occasions, and would have slowly melted, making the cone-wearer’s
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The Vietnamese Trung sisters rose up against invading Chinese armies in 40 CE, and successfully rebelled for three years before their deaths. Often depicted as sword-bearing women riding on elephants, they have become a nationalist symbol for Vietnam. The Trung sisters have temples dedicated to them, statues of them adorn many city quarters, and holidays
Cthulhu was orange in the Middle Ages, evidently. (Jk this is Hildegard of Bingen – a famous mystic – being inspired by the Holy Spirit. Totally different primordial mind-influencing force.)
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The Goddess Diana above a group of women all reading. From “The Book of the Queen,” by Christine de Pizan, one of the most famous women authors of the Middle Ages, about 1410. Source: Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4431
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Check out the exhibit “Empresses of China’s Forbidden City: 1644-1912,” at the Arthur K. Sackler Gallery, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.. This epic portrait of the last dowager empress, Cixi, was commissioned by her. I love the fingernails!
Last Dowager Empress Cixi Read More »
This finial crowning the top of an elaborately carved tusk from 19th-century Kongo depicts a nursing mother. A skilled artisan would have made the tusk as part of a commissioning by a community leader. The few women depicted on this tusk form a striking counter-narrative to most of the images. One woman carried a small
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This is maybe the first computer bug, and relates to one of the more famous anecdotes adorning the legendary reputation of Grace Hopper, one of the most important developers of the computer in the 20th century. Hopper (d. 1992 age 85) earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale and was working as a professor until
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This image shows the creation of Pandora, subject of an Ancient Greek myth. Although Pandora’s curiosity was said to have explained the source of all evils for mankind, I think the story does a better job showing how misogynist the Ancient Greek world was. In Hesiod’s work (7th c. BCE), the poet tells how Zeus
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Statue made of Birchwood of the Virgin Mary, with glass eyes. Autun region of France, c. 1130-40.
Birchwood Statue of Virgin Mary Read More »
If you wanted to feel special in the 14th c., you might have tried to get ahold of objects like these: reliquaries were sacred containers of the holy bodily remains of Europe’s medieval superheroes, the Christian saints. This shoe (suggesting that inside was part of a foot) depicts Saint Margaret just having busted her way
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This 10th c. sandstone relief depicts the Hindu goddess Kali – the Goddess of time, destruction, sexuality, salvation, and protection. She has a horrifying image – bloody fangs, belt of human hands, necklace of skulls, with eyes bright red and skin blue or black. This appearance would have represented a completely uncontained female, something wholly
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Modern copy of a Japanese _juunihitoe_ or “twelve layered” kimono worn by aristocratic women from the Heian period (9th-12th centuries). These outfits actually weighed women down because of the amount of fabric involved.
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Sheila na gigs are medieval sculptures of females holding exaggerated vulva. The highest concentration are found in Ireland, where they were popular in the 12th century – perhaps to ward off evil. You are welcome.
Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? The tale of the Greenbrier Ghost of West Virginia is among the finest in 19th-century American history, and I think it deserves more attention. As you can see in the second slide, the ghost, Elva Zona Heaster Shue (first image), is commemorated on a West Virginia state historical
The Greenbrier Ghost Read More »
