In the summer of 1841, Mary Rogers disappeared without a trace from her New York City boarding house. Three days later, her body, badly bruised and waterlogged, was found floating in the shallow waters of the Hudson River just a few feet from the Jersey shore. Her story, parlayed into a long celebrated unsolved mystery, became grist for penny presses, social reformers, and politicians alike, and an impetus for popular literature, including Edgar Allan Poe’s pioneering detective story “The Mystery of Marie Roget.”

Historian Amy Gilman Srebnick has written a perceptive and engrossing book about both the individual and the meaning of her story, and she will participate in the Hoboken Museum’s book club on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 4 pm, following her lecture on Nov. 7 in our #NJWomenMakeHistory lecture series, celebrating historic New Jersey women in this centennial year of American women’s right to vote. 

Books are available for purchase in the Museum gift shop and at our online store. 

All of these discussions will be held online and are free to attend, thanks to a generous grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Reservations are required for participation. Visit https://bit.ly/NJWomenMakeHistory to reserve a spot. A Zoom link will be shared about an hour before each discussion with everyone who signed up.

Join the club!

Join the discussion with author Amy Gilman Srebnick about The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Saturday, November 14, at 4 pm.

In “The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers,” historian Amy Gilman Srebnick brilliantly recaptures the story of Mary Rogers (1820-1841), showing how Rogers represented an emerging class of women who took advantage of the greater economic and sexual opportunities available to them in urban America, and how her death became a touchstone for the voicing of mid-nineteenth century concerns over sexual license, the changing roles of women, law and order, and abortion.

Rogers’ death, first thought due to a murderous gang of rapists and later tacitly understood to be the result of an ill-performed abortion, quickly became a source of popular entertainment, a topic of political debate, and an inspiration to public policy. The incident and the city’s response to it provides a fascinating window into the urban culture and consciousness of the mid-1800s. Indeed, in Rogers’ name, and as a direct result of her death, two pieces of legislation were passed in 1845: the New York City Police Reform Act which effectively modernized the city’s system of policing, and the New York State law criminalizing abortion.

Amy Gilman Srebnick, Professor Emerita Montclair State University, is the author of “The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York.” She sits on the Board of the Women’s History Center of the New York Historical Society, and serves as an advisor for the film “The People’s Will,” a documentary film about the Astor Place theater riots of 1849. Professor Srebnick is also an active member with UN NGO with a focus on immigration and works on projects that counter xenophobia and advocate for social inclusion.

Remaining lecture schedule:
(all events begin at 4 pm, streaming online & in person) 

• Sunday, 11/15 – Martha & Caroline Stevens, by Eileen Lynch 
• Sunday, 11/22 – Anne Ryan: Her Art and Life, by Nancy Nikkal
• Sunday, 12/6 – NJ Women Poets Make History, with live readings by 6 NJ poets 
• Sunday, 12/13 – An Interview with Maria Pepe

The lecture series tickets are available at https://bit.ly/NJWomenMakeHistory.

In addition to a generous Action Grant of $16,500 from the NJ Council for the Humanities to fund this lecture series, the Hoboken Historical Museum received a $5,000 COVID-19 grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the federal CARES Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this [publication, program, exhibition, film, etc.] do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.