Her Half of History

Of all the words I did not think I would have to define, doll probably tops the list. We all know what the quintessential girls’ toy is, right? Only it turns out we don't. Separating the dolls from the statues, idols, effigies, puppets, and fertility symbols is a complex (and possibly hopeless) task in the pre-modern world, but we give it a go in this episode with dolls from prehistoric times, plu...

Historical mothers did not have a lot of pink and purple merchandise for their baby girls, but they did have words. Lullabies, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales are probably as old as humanity, but they mostly didn't get written down until the 17th to 19th century. This episode ranges from the one (and sadly only one) ancient Roman lullaby we know, to the origins of Little Miss Muffet and her Mother...

Childhood doesn't sound like it needs discovering, right? Surely everyone, up to and including a large number of animal species, are aware of children. But the historical record does not really agree with you on that. Ancient biographies tend to start at adulthood. Apparently nothing interesting happened before that, even to very interesting people. Historians have called the ages zero to seven "t...

In the days before ultrasounds, expectant mothers still wanted to know if they were having a boy or a girl, and experts from Aristotle to celibate male monks to midwives were eager to help them find out. Methods ranged from dubious to really, really dubious, but if you want to try any of them out, this episode will tell you the most common methods. Assuming you actually were born a girl, then your...

Today I have an episode by fellow Into History podcaster Rich Napolitano, of the Shipwrecks and Seadogs podcast. He looks at maritime history across the world and across the ages. Historically speaking, ships were often named as women, but they didn’t have a whole lot of women working on them. With some exceptions. There are a handful of known women mariners in history, and that is a potential fut...

On the Wild West Extravaganza podcast, Josh tells the stories of the tumultuous American Old West, including characters like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, and Wild Bill Hickok. But in this episode he tells us about the amazing Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter, an entertainer, and one tough lady. I am still on research break. Series 11 on the history of girlhood will start on September 21st....

Today's episode is by guest writer Kate Twitchell King, who researched Helen Keller, a deaf-blind American, born in 1880. There are many books, many films, and many TV shows about her, especially about her early childhood, but this is the story of what happened after her extraordinary breakthrough with her teacher Anne Sullivan. I am still on research break (series 11 on the history of girlhood is...

August 21st will mark 242 years since an incredible woman named Elizabeth Freeman sued her owner for freedom and won. In celebration, I am going to play today an interview with her that I did with Kathleen Langone of the People Hidden in History podcast.  Kathleen began historical research by doing her own family history, and she has branched out from there, with episodes about Flora MacDonald, th...

History is made every day, and the History Daily podcast is too. For today's episode, I am bringing you two of their episodes: Nellie Bly Races Around the World and Queen Victoria Survives Assassination for the Eighth Time. You can hear more of History Daily wherever you get your podcasts or on their website (https://www.historydaily.com/) or in the Into History Network. Many thanks to Lindsay Gra...

I am currently on a research break working on Series 11, but instead of going dark during this time, I have lined up a variety of content for you. This week I am playing an interview I did a few months ago with Mike Corradi of the fabulously entertaining History of Italy podcast. He starts with the Fall of the Roman Empire and has just recently completed the Middle Ages, meaning that he has alread...

Georgia O'Keeffe is the hardest to classify of all the painters I have covered. Her work is neither abstract, nor realistic, nor surreal.  She is simply a modern painter, most famous for her gorgeous flower paintings and landscapes of New Mexico, which feature bold colors and swirling shapes. She made it big in the art world in a way that few other women have, and she also holds the record for the...

I’m happy to announce Her Half of History is now part of the Into History podcast network, a brand-new subscription channel of podcasts made by history lovers for history lovers. You’ll get access to hundreds of ad-free episodes, plus exclusive curated feeds around a topic, a bookclub, a newsletter, and a community hub to keep the conversation going. In addition to Her Half of History, you will ge...

Are you a Fridolatrist? A fan of Fridamania? An admirer of the unibrow, the surrealism, and the shocking way in which Frida Kahlo portrayed the most private parts of her life on canvas? This week's episode explores the life of a woman who has been claimed as a secular saint by artists, feminists, Chicanos, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+ communities. Whether you love her art or loathe it, she is trul...

One year to the day after Paula Modersohn-Becker died, her friend, the celebrated poet Rainer Maria Rilke, sat down to write a Requiem for her, and today’s episode is that requiem in translation. I suggest listening to last week's episode before this one because the poem has numerous references to Paula and her life:  ·       the amber necklace that appeared in many of her paintings,  ·       her...

If Paula Modersohn-Becker had lived as long as Picasso, you might know her name as well as you know his. That is the claim of multiple art historians who celebrate her for her use of color and her breaking open of the nude genre. Her work is startling for portraying women as real women, with absolutely no regard for the masculine gaze. Her life was a struggle to find her way between the demands of...

In the early years of the 20th century, an obscure woman in Sweden invented abstract art to reflect her spiritualist views in which the physical world we know was only the lowest plane of existence. Despite her mixed efforts, few people knew about her art for decades until it was rediscovered in the 1980s to high critical acclaim. Also, the poll for the topic of Series 11 is available on Patreon a...

Mary Cassatt was born in the US, but spent most of her life in France, where she became known as a prominent member of the Impressionist movement. She was known for her exquisite paintings and prints, many of them revolving around the intimate bond between mothers and children. She had a close working relationship with Edgar Degas. Her artwork can be found in renowned museums worldwide, including...

Uemura Shōen painted bijin-ga, a traditional Japanese style of art which featured beautiful women. She had her first international success at the age of 15 and continued with many decades of painting, right through two world wars and changing fashions. Visit the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and...

Today I welcome guest podcaster, Kathleen Langone from the People Hidden in History podcast. Kathleen talks about one of her own distant relations: Amalia Küssner, who painted the portraits of the wealthy and famous during the Gilded Age and traveled across three continents to do it. You can see Kathleen's show at peoplehiddeninhistory.com or follow her on Twitter (@phihpod) or Instagram or Linked...

Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was a genius at portrait painter. She rose from obscurity to being Marie Antoinette's official painter, which was great right up until it wasn't. When the French Revolution came, Elisabeth fled to Italy, Austria, and Russia, painting portraits all the way. Later generations have denigrated her, largely on the theory that anyone painting something so appealing must not have...

In a world where words like "entomologist" and "ecologist" had not yet been coined, Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) managed to be both. She was trained as a painter of flowers but was really more interested in the bugs on the flowers. Her adventures took her from her native Germany to Holland, across the Atlantic to Surinam, and back, where her paintings of wildlife were admired by scientists acr...

Art flourished in Ming dynasty China. Scolar-officials (and their wives and concubines) pursued the painting of birds, flowers, and landscapes as a sign of their cultural refinement. Li Yin was a celebrated painter of the 17th century, and during her lifetime over 40 other artists were imitating her work and selling it with her name on it. Her works can still be seen in the Palace Museum in Beijin...

In the Dutch Golden Age, Judith Leyster was a Master Painter who ran her own workshop and created some of the greatest masterpieces of the age. Then she died, her name was completely forgotten, and her works were attributed to her contemporaries (all men). Until a lawsuit in the late 19th century sparked an investigation that dug her back out of the archives to great critical acclaim. Visit the ⁠⁠...

Artemisia Gentileschi was a woman who would not be kept down. She created some of the greatest masterpieces of her time and some would say that she was the first in all of art history to portray women as realistic protagonists in their own story. Her most famous works include women with bloody swords. She was a card-carrying member of the #MeToo movement (or at least she would have been if it had...

Sofonisba Anguissola was the first of the female Italian Renaissance painters. She studied with Michelangelo, worked as court painter for Spanish royalty, and continued to paint throughout a very long life. She pioneered still life and intimate family moments long before others made them a viable art form. Her status as a noblewoman actually raised the profile of artists. She is the first of many...