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.

The lecture series will be streamed online, with 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.

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 series debuts with a bang on Sunday, Sept. 13, with a talk by NYU professor and author Linda Gordon about Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), the famous American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. Lange’s work was recently featured at the Museum of Modern Art. Born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn at 1041 Bloomfield Street, Hoboken, NJ, Dorothea apprenticed herself to several NY photographers before taking the assignment for the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration that made her famous. Lange’s images brought the plight of the poor and forgotten—particularly sharecroppers, displaced farm families, and migrant workers—to public attention. Distributed free to newspapers across the country, Lange’s poignant images became icons of the era. 

Linda Gordon is professor of history and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Her early books focused on the historical roots of social policy issues, particularly as they concern gender and family issues. In her later books, she explored other genres of history. Her recent books include: The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction (1999) and the biography of great photographer Dorothea Lange (2009), both of which won the Bancroft Prize for best book in US history; Impounded (2008); Feminism Unfinished (2015); The Second Coming of the KKK (2017). Her most recent book is another biography of a photographer, Inge Morath: An Illustrated Biography (2018).

Full schedule: (all events begin at 4 pm, streaming online & in person (except Oct. 4, online only)

• Sunday 9/13 – Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, by NYU Professor Linda Gordon 
• Sunday, 10/4* – The Richest Woman in the World, Hetty Green in the Gilded Age, by Janet Wallach 
• 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: Sunday, Oct. 4, the program is presented online only, and the fourth lecture, Nov. 7, occurs on a Saturday.)

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.