The birth of the United States is often framed as a decidedly male affair; people tend to talk more about the ‘Founding Fathers’ than about the founding mothers or sisters. This does a disservice to the many women who also risked life and limb in the fight for independence and played a major role in shaping US history thereafter. This exhibition considers New York as a microcosm of 18th-century America, focusing on women such as Deborah Sampson, whose enlistment in the Continental Army was trumpeted throughout early print media, and Margaret Corbin, the first woman to receive a federal pension after sustaining injuries in combat (29 May–25 October). Not all the women in the exhibition embraced the American cause, however: the Mohawk leader Molly Brant, for example, fought for the British, hoping that they would help protect her ancestral land from rapacious settlers. The curators bring together paintings, contemporary literature and objects from everyday 18th-century life to present this alternative account of the early days of the United States.
Find out more from the New York Historical’s website.
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