The Christmas season is a curious time for a historian of women’s health, abortion, and maternal politics: at its historical […]
Strange Pain, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Womb: A Teacher’s Reflection on Bodies in History
[gblockquote source=’Bettina Judd, patient.‘]HOW TO MEASURE PAIN I In the woman it is a checklist: Can you imagine anything worse […]
Are Women Human? A Historical Mystery with Medical Interruptions
In 1938, the British crime writer and theologian Dorothy Leigh Sayers addressed a women’s society on the simple question: “Are […]
Pictures of an Institution: Birth Records at Old Blockley
On September 22, 1859, 30-year-old Margaret Merchant of Philadelphia was admitted to the obstetrical ward at the Blockley Almshouse. She […]
Report from Pride: LGBT History Is (Not Yet) American History
Last June I participated in the annual Pride March in New York City, the biggest celebration of LGBT pride in the […]
Back in the Narrative: Hamilton as a Model for Women’s History
Last September, the soundtrack of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-nominated Hamilton: An American Musical became available online to Americans everywhere, and history […]
A Letter to the Lady in Pants: Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and the History of Women (Un)Worthies
“WALKER, Mary Edwards (Nov. 26, 1832 – Feb. 21, 1919), Civil War medical worker, dress reformer, and eccentric.” So begins […]
“The Only Menstrual Murderess”: Blood, Guns, and a Theory of Female Crime
[gblockquote]Lizzie Borden took an ax And gave her father forty whacks And when she saw what she had done She […]
Whipped: An Editor, a Lady, and the (Not So) Humorous History of Women’s Anger
In 1859, the popular men’s magazine The National Police Gazette, known for its coverage of sport, saucy ladies, and other […]
“She Looks the Abortionist and the Bad Woman”: Sensation, Physiognomy, and Misogyny in Abortion Discourse
In November of 1866, a minor sensation rocked the Albany area following the death of the young widow Elizabeth Dunham, […]
