145 Items

Women's History

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  • Rosa Parks book shaped like a schoolbus
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    Be an Innovator - like Rosa Parks

    In honor of Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday and our Day of Courage celebration earlier this year, the education team at The Henry Ford has developed a special educational activity book for children that focuses on social innovation and the way the civil r
  • A pineapple canning factory
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    Agriculture in Hawaii: Pineapple

    Pineapple cultivation in Hawaii confirms global movement of plants and people. Then next time you pick up a can of Hawaiian pineapple, consider the global movement of plants — and the histories of the people that contributed to it.
  • Glass display case with three women's dresses
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    Influencing Fashion

    Through mid-April 2026, the What We Wore exhibit in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation presents a look at fashion magazines and catalogs.
  • Lillian Schwartz at a computer
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    Lillian Schwartz & the Mona Leo Theory

    In the mid-1980s, the multi-hyphenate artist and filmmaker Lillian Schwartz began to promote the computer as a tool capable of solving age-old mysteries in art history, architecture, and archeology.
  • American Women American Craft
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    American Women, American Craft

    A new exhibition in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation’s Collections Gallery – Handmade: The Crafting of America – opens to the public on March 21, 2026. This exhibit features stories from the rich 250 years of craft in America. As March is Women’s History Month, here are some highlights of the contributions of women in craft in our collections and in the exhibition.
  • Some of Margaret Bourke-White's photos seen featured on the central column of Aluminum Company of America Display, Ford Building, Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1934. / Detail from THF213261
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    Symbols in Simplicity: The Photography of Margaret Bourke-White

    Photojournalism at its best has the power to extend beyond being merely documentary; at its finest, it is intended to make the viewer think or feel something about the subject matter.
  • “Sculptural Hands-Free Telephone” by Lillian F. Schwartz, 1972. / THF188460
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    Paving the Way for Hands-Free Technologies

    In 1972, Lillian Schwartz sat down with a bundle of pipe cleaners. She tested their flexibility, twisting them into loose loops and serpentine figures. Lillian was an artist, and often used unconventional materials in her work--but these pipe cleaner
  • Lillian Schwartz at work at Bell Laboratories, circa 1975. / THF149836
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    Is it really art? Lillian Schwartz, Computer Art and Artificial Intelligence

    “An oil painting by Matisse of a humanoid robot playing chess.” “An astronaut riding a horse in photorealistic style.” “An armchair in the shape of an avocado.” These are only a few input suggestions for the image generation platform known as Dall-E
  • Images of the composer rarely appeared on sheet music for popular songs. Maria Grever’s photo graced the cover of “My Margarita” in 1939, along with photos of the performers, the usual images included to help increase sales of sheet music. / THF713047
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    Maria Grever: A Little Known — But Not Unsung — Composer

    What do the Andrews Sisters’s 1938 hit song, “Ti-Pi-Tin,” and Dinah Washington’s Grammy-winning 1959 recording of “What a Difference a Day Makes” have in common? Both songs were written by Maria Grever, a female Mexican composer.
  • The vegetable building at Detroit Central Market, 1884. / THF139107
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    Mary Judge: Fixture of Detroit’s Central Market

    Through determination and resourcefulness, Mary Judge stood out from the other “hucksters” at Detroit’s Central Market in the latter half of the 19th century. Poor, single, and an immigrant, Judge managed to make a living – and a name for herself.