The Hoboken Historical Museum is pleased to present #NJWomenMakeHistory, an exciting eight-part lecture series focusing on New Jersey women who made their mark on history, as part of New Jersey’s celebration of the centennial of women’s right to vote. From groundbreaking photographer Dorothea Lange, to gender barrier-breaking baseball player Maria Pepe, both Hoboken natives, the series covers women who made history in a variety of spheres, including politics, finance, philanthropy, art, poetry and sports.

Guest speakers include distinguished authors and scholars, as well as the live participation of New Jersey women poets, and an in-person interview with Hoboken’s own Maria Pepe. The lecture series will be streamed online, with some lectures offering limited in-person seating at the Hoboken Museum, 1301 Hudson Street. To attend in person, face masks, hand hygiene and social distance guidelines will be observed. All talks are free to attend, thanks to a generous grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Reservations are required for in-person and online participation. Visit https://bit.ly/NJWomenMakeHistory to reserve a spot.

Tickets

The third talk in the series is Sunday, Oct. 18, at 4 pm, featuring author Amy Schapiro talking about Millicent Fenwick, the popular and colorful New Jersey congresswoman, about whom former NJ Governor Thomas Kean said, “You couldn’t invent Millicent Fenwick….She was unique. The best writers of fiction might have struggled to make her believable but they would have failed.” 

Affectionately remembered as the pipe-smoking grandmother who served as the model for Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” character Lacey Davenport, Fenwick defied such simplistic expectations to become, in the words of Walter Cronkite, “the conscience of Congress.”

Fenwick was an accomplished descendent of Hoboken’s founders, the Stevens family. Born in 1910 into comfortable circumstances, Fenwick faced tragedy at an early age, when her mother was lost aboard the Lusitania. Following an upper-class childhood at boarding school and a failed marriage, she began a 14-year career at Vogue magazine. In the 1960s, Fenwick became involved in the Civil Rights movement and took part in local and state politics in New Jersey.

Blessed with striking good looks and a sharp wit, she cut a glamorous figure, rising quickly through the ranks of the state Republican Party at a time when most of her peers were retiring. When this colorful, outspoken figure — one of only five New Jersey women ever elected to Congress — went to Washington in 1974 at age 64, her victory was portrayed by the media as a “geriatric triumph.”

Amy Schapiro’s extensive interviews with Fenwick’s son, Hugh, who granted her exclusive rights to Fenwick’s personal papers, oral histories, letters, and photographs, provide rare insight into the life and career of one of America’s most memorable politicians.

Schapiro’s interest in Millicent Fenwick was sparked in college when she wrote her senior thesis on Rep. Fenwick. It was in the course of her research that she was surprised to learn no biography had been written on her subject. Although the pair never met, they did exchange letters pertaining to Schapiro’s college thesis. A few months after the project was completed, Fenwick died and an idea was born — to write the first biography of Mrs. Fenwick. This was made possible in large measure by Hugh Fenwick, Millicent’s son, who granted Schapiro exclusive authorization rights to his mother’s private papers, letters, journals, and photographs, without which a biography on Millicent Fenwick would be incomplete.

Schapiro, a native of New Jersey, has spoken around the country at book stores, universities, book festivals, writer’s conferences, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives. She has been featured on several radio programs and has appeared on C-Span’s BookTV. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., and works at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Remaining lecture schedule:
(all events begin at 4 pm, streaming online & in person (except Oct. 4 and Nov. 7, which are online only)

• Sunday, 10/18 – Millicent Fenwick, Her Way, by Amy Schapiro 
• Saturday, 11/7* – The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, by Amy Gilman Srebnick 
• 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

*(Please note: the fourth lecture, on Saturday, Nov. 7, is online only, no in-person seating.)

Join our book club! Amy Schapiro and three of the authors have agreed to host online book discussions after their talks. Click on the button below to join any of the remaining book discussion sessions. Buy the books on our online gift shop (or in our gift shop at 1301 Hudson St., Hoboken). 

Join the book club!

Amy Schapiro, Millicent Fenwick: Her Way, Saturday, October 24 at 4 pm

Amy Gilman Srebnick, The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Saturday, November 14 at 4 pm

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.