NEW YORK — It was January of 1777 when the second official printing of the Declaration of Independence was completed in Baltimore, Maryland. At the bottom is the name of the woman who printed it: Mary Katharine Goddard, a prominent printer and Baltimore's first postmaster.
The document is among the items featured in the Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library's Treasures at the Main Branch at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue and part of a self-guided tour celebrating Women's History Month.
What You Need To Know
- The New York Public Library is celebrating Women's History Month with a self-guided tour of some of the items in its collection spotlighting trailblazing women
- The items are in the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures at the Main Branch at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan
- Among the items is a rare printing of the Declaration of Independence printed by Mary Katharine Goddard in January 1777
- There are 250 items in the Treasures exhibition from among the 47 million pieces in the library's extensive collection
"To have her name on this really assigns her endorsement of the revolution, but she is also making a pretty clear statement: 'I am a woman politician. I am a woman who has a say and who is involved in these public processes,'" said Julie Golia, Curator of History, Social Sciences and Government Information at the NYPL.
"Which will allow visitors to focus on these stories of women, some known, some unknown, some embedded in the texts of the materials that we have in here, that really give them the tools to kind of tease out those histories," Golia added.
Visitors can see a handwritten draft of Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," writer Virginia Woolf's walking stick, Charlotte Bronte's writing desk and postcards from senators responding to suffragist Susan B. Anthony's questions to them about getting women the right to vote.
"Some just replied, 'Yes,' some just just replied 'No.' Others would say things like, 'I don't think that giving women the vote will promote human happiness,' and other very interesting observations," Golia said.
The self-guided tour gives visitors a chance to hone in on trailblazing women through history within this permanent exhibition of items from the library's collection of more than 47 million pieces. Among them is a copy of "The Ladder," a magazine published in 1964 by the first lesbian-centered organization in the United States.
"One of the major sort of revolutions here was the actual featuring of people's faces on the cover, during a time when gay men and lesbians were afraid to actually show their faces and own their identity," Golia said.
The exhibition is free, but timed entry tickets are required. The tour can also be taken online.