Fairfield Hamlet Hub | Laura McCormick
GREENWICH, Conn. – Greenwich Historical Society ushers in Women’s History Month with lectures focused on pioneering women who helped to shape the public’s understanding of the world and society through their photographs, reporting and social advocacy.
“Our latest exhibition LIFE: Six Women Photographers on view through July 7th explores the works of six women whose iconic images for LIFE magazine helped create modern photojournalism. In honor of this exciting new exhibition, and in commemoration of Women’s History Month, we are excited to offer a series of public lectures exploring the exhibition’s topic in more detail, and highlighting the stories of several other Connecticut women who were lauded for their work in literature, journalism and social activism,” says Stephanie Barnett, Greenwich Historical Society’s Associate Director of Public Programs and Community Outreach. “We are privileged to welcome distinguished speakers Louisa Iacurci and Dr. Marilyn Satin Kushner to help us understand how these remarkable individuals left an indelible mark on our society.”
Women of Photos and Letters: Margaret Bourke-White, Clare Boothe Luce and Annie Leibovitz
An Illustrated Lecture by Louisa Iacurci, Education Manager, Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame
Thursday, March 14 from 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Louisa Iacurci will explore the inspiring histories of world-renowned photographers Margaret Bourke-White and Annie Leibovitz, and noted writer, politician and U.S. Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce. Bourke-White’s insightful and captivating pictures of world events in the 1930’s and of combat zones during World War II established her reputation. Known for her iconic portraits of world figures and celebrities, Annie Leibovitz’s photographs have appeared in leading magazines, including Vogue, Vanity Fair and over 100 Rolling Stone magazine covers. Boothe Luce, wife of LIFE magazine founder and Editor-in-Chief Henry Luce, earned her reputation as a keen observer of American life and gender roles among the New York elite with her breakout Broadway hit The Women, produced in 1936, which was followed by a successful career as war correspondent and two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Iacurci also will discuss the contributions of several Connecticut women inductees to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame who contributed to the public’s understanding of world events through their writing and reporting, including Helen Keller, Jane Pauley and Harriet Beecher Stowe, among others.
For more information and to register: https://greenwichhistory.org/event/women-of-photos-and-letters/
LIFE: Six Women Photographers: A Lecture with Curator Marilyn Satin Kushner
Thursday, March 21 from 6:00 – 7:00 PM
An Illustrated Lecture by Marilyn Satin Kushner, Ph.D., Curator and Head of the Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society
In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Kushner will expand on the curatorial process for LIFE: Six Women Photographers, reflecting on how the six photographers whose iconic photographs make up the exhibition were integral to the vision for what Henry Luce termed “the American Century.” Among the few photographers employed by LIFE between the late 1930s and the early 1970s, Margaret Bourke-White, Marie Hansen, Martha Holmes, Lisa Larsen, Nina Leen and Hansel Mieth skillfully captured events on the world stage, enabling the public to “see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events” as described by Luce.
Dr. Kushner has mounted more than fifty exhibitions in her curatorial career, including most recently Running for Civil Rights: The New York Pioneer Club (2023) and The Art of Winold Reiss: An Immigrant Modernist (2022) at the New-York Historical Society, and in her previous positions as Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Brooklyn Museum and Curator of Collections at the Montclair Art Museum.
For more information and to register: https://greenwichhistory.org/event/life-photographers-curator-lecture/.
LIFE: Six Women Photographers is on view from March 6th through July 7th, 2024. All lectures are held at Greenwich Historical Society, 47 Strickland Rd., Cos Cob. Reservations are required.
LIFE: Six Women Photographers has been organized by the New-York Historical Society. The exhibition is curated by Marilyn Satin Kushner, curator and head, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections; and Sarah Gordon, curatorial scholar in the New-York Historical Society’s, Center for Women’s History; with Erin Levitsky, Ryerson University; and William J. Simmons, Andrew Mellon Foundation PreDoctoral Fellow, Center for Women’s History. The New-York Historical Society holds the research archive of Time Inc., which was acquired by the Meredith Corporation (now Dotdash Meredith Corp.) in 2018.
Support for this exhibition at the Greenwich Historical Society has been generously provided by Josie Merck and annual donors to the Greenwich Historic Trust.
The exhibition has been generously supported by Joyce B. Cowin, with additional support from Sara Lee Schupf, Jerry Speyer, Robert A. M. Stern and Northern Trust.
Photo credits
1. Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame Inductees Annie Leibovitz (left) and Margaret Bourke-White (right). Images courtesy Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame
2. Nina Leen, unpublished photograph from “American Woman’s Dilemma,” LIFE, June 16, 1947 © LIFE Picture Collection, Dotdash Meredith Corp. Leen also photographed single working women for “American Woman’s Dilemma,” but most of those photographs, such as this one, were not printed in the magazine
3. Margaret Bourke-White, photograph from “Franklin Roosevelt’s Wild West,” LIFE, November 23, 1936 © LIFE Picture Collection, Dotdash Meredith Corp. Margaret Bourke-White became one of the first four staff photographers at LIFE in 1936.
