Women's History Month 2024

March is Women's History Month The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

Migrant worker in a field, harvesting peas with a wooden basket to the left.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People - American photographer Dorothea Lange made some of the most iconic portraits of the 20th century. Featuring some 100 photographs, the exhibition addresses her innovative approaches to picturing people, emphasizing her work on social issues including economic disparity, migration, poverty, and racism.

Image Credit: Dorothea Lange, Migratory Workers Harvesting Peas near Nipomo, California, spring 1937, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser.

Reporter Lori Montenegro portrait with camera equipment in the foreground.

¡De última hora! Latinas Report Breaking News

“¡De última hora! Latinas Report Breaking News” is a bilingual exhibition showcasing the work of Latina broadcast journalists and how they wrote the first draft of history for major U.S. events for the Spanish-language communities they report on and for.

Image credit: Lori Montenegro reporting from Washington, D.C., 2018. Image courtesy of Telemundo through the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Cotton and wool quilt with a square and star at the center, along with other various geometric shapes.

Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women

Explore the creative practice of Amish quilters in the United States. Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women looks beyond quilting as a utilitarian practice. In the late nineteenth century, Amish women adopted an artform already established within the larger American culture and made it distinctly their own, developing community and familial preferences, with women sharing work, skills, and patterns.

Image credit: Unidentified Maker, Crazy Star; ca. 1920, Arthur, Illinois, cotton and wool; 74 x 63 ½ in. (detail), Collection of Faith and Stephen Brown, Promised gift to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Silhouette of a woman with shoulder length hair wearing a park ranger hat.

National Park Service Celebrates Women's History Month

Explore women's history in national parks and in places in communities across the country to discover women of all cultures providing healing and hope. Learn how women continue to lead in these roles in stewardship and conservation of America's natural and cultural treasures today.

Image credit: Image designed by the National Park Service

Mary Weiss Hester holding a clipboard caring for a patient onboard a plane.

The Women of Five Wars

The limited but important roles women played in Korea and Vietnam paved the path to more expanded -- and in some cases more dangerous -- specialties in recent wars.

Image credit: Fort Wayne News Sentinel image of Mary Weiss Hester of the 801st Medical Air Evacuation Squadron caring for a wounded patient onboard a C-47 Skytrain. January 1953. (Library of Congress)

Detail from a promotional poster for the 1916 silent film “Shoes” directed by Lois Weber. It features a dramatic and minimalist caricature drawing of the film’s blonde star Mary MacLaren rendered mostly in gold and red ink.

Women They Talk About: Documenting Early Women Filmmakers with the American Film Institute—Teachers Guide

Women actively participated in shaping the nascent film industry of the early twentieth century, both as screen stars and behind the camera. But why is this history missing from our understanding of early Hollywood?

Image credit: Promotional poster for silent film directed by Lois Weber. Image by Burton Rice for Bluebird Photoplays (Life time: pre-1925 publication of advertisement by defunct film company; expired copyright) - Original publication: The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y.)

Brought to you by:

National Gallery of Art
Library of Congress
Smithsonian
National Archives
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
National Park Service
National Endowment for the Humanities