White Settler Women
Excerpts from a travel journal that illustrate what life was like for the earliest women settlers in the western territories.
Life Story: Charity and Sylvia
Charity and Sylvia were recognized as a married couple in Weybridge and eventually celebrated as models of lifelong companionship.
Life Story: Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps
The story of a leader in science and education.
Life Story: Asenath Smith
The story of the woman whose experiences inspired the nation’s first abortion law.
Life Story: Jarena Lee
The story of a Black woman preacher of the Second Great Awakening.
Quilting
A new American folk art is born from an abundance of cotton and the new textile mills.
Early American Consumers
This object illustrates how women consumers helped boost the new nation’s economy.
Observations of the New Nation
Two foreign visitors capture the spirit and culture of the new nation.
Silhouettes
An example of the “democratic” portrait style made by one of the Federal period’s most famous silhouette makers.
Novel for a New Era
An excerpt from the first bestseller of the Federal period reveals prevailing attitudes about women’s sexuality.
