Celebrating Women’s History
Historic Books by Women in the Library Exhibition Hall
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), Natures Pictures Drawn by Fancies Pencil to the Life, Printed book, London: J. Martin and J. Allestrye, 1656.
Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne beginning in 1665, was one of a few women writers publishing in her lifetime and one of even fewer women writers to write under her own name. She published more than a dozen works in many genres, including poetry, plays, fiction, and philosophical prose. Her pioneering narrative The Blazing World anticipates the science fiction genre. Natures Pictures is perhaps her most diverse work, combining short romances, satire, verse, moralistic tales, addresses to the reader, and autobiography.
Historic Books by Women in the Library Exhibition Hall
Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (1706–1749), Institutions de physique (Foundations of physics), Printed book, Paris: Prault, 1740, The Burndy Library Collection at the Huntington Library.
Emilie du Châtelet worked in an era when most women were excluded from scientific institutions and higher learning. She championed the rights of women and became one of the most prominent natural philosophers and mathematicians of the 18th century. The Institutions de physique was a general introduction to new ideas in science and philosophy. Du Châtelet is best known for her influential translation of and commentary on Newton’s Principia.
Historic Books by Women in the Library Exhibition Hall
Mary Prince (1788–after 1833), The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Printed book, London: F. Westley & A. H. Davis; Edinburgh: Waugh & Innes, 1831.
Thought to be the first Black woman to publish an account of her own enslavement, Mary Prince was born in Bermuda and sold several times before she was taken to England. In England, where Prince eventually won her freedom, she dictated her story to a young abolitionist writer named Susanna Moodie (née Strickland). Narratives like Prince’s, which described the atrocities of enslavement firsthand, helped fuel abolitionist movements, and her story was reprinted three times in its first year of publication.
Before Eve Babitz became a published writer, she was a visual artist, and her chosen medium was collage. Inspired by Joseph Cornell and Andy Warhol, she created the album cover art for Buffalo Springfield’s “Buffalo Springfield Again” and The Byrds’ “Untitled.”
Letters from Jane Austen’s mother reveal more than just a glimpse into the famous author’s family—they highlight the importance of archives and those who tend to them. Archivist Gayle Richardson and Vanessa Wilkie, William A. Moffett Senior Curator of Medieval Manuscripts and British History and head of Library Curatorial, discuss the importance and relevance of the Leigh Family Archive.
Lois Rosson, The Huntington’s 2023–24 Octavia E. Butler Fellow, discusses her experience at NASA, her study of astronomical illustrations as extensions of the frontier West, and Butler’s alternative vision of space.
In 1924, Henry E. Huntington bought an extensive portfolio from Frances B. Johnston, understood to be the nation’s first female photojournalist. Johnston photographed U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, and famous people ranging from Susan B. Anthony to Mark Twain. And she traveled widely to document architecture and gardens.
Expand your home library with books about important women in history as well as titles by some of our favorite female authors—many of whom are part of The Huntington’s collections. Shop our curated collection online and in-store.
One of the most powerful women of Tudor and Stuart England, Alice Spencer rose to become the matriarch of one of the most prominent families in British history. The story of her ascent is the subject of “A Woman of Influence,” the first book by The Huntington’s Vanessa Wilkie.
Historic Paintings by Women in The Huntington’s Art Galleries
Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun (French, 1755–1842), Portrait of Joseph Hyacinthe François-de-Paule de Rigaud, comte de Vaudreuil (1740–1817), ca. 1784, oil on canvas, 51 × 38 1/4 × 1 in. (129.5 × 97.2 × 2.5 cm). Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation.
The artist of this painting, Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun, was one of the most important European portraitists of the 18th century and one of only four women to be admitted to the French Academy of Fine Arts. She painted members of the royal court and Parisian high society, including her close friend, the comte de Vaudreuil, whose lofty social status is on full display here. Seated in a carved and gilded chair, he wears a lavishly embellished jacket and waistcoat with delicate lace at his collar and cuffs. A bright blue silk sash and silver badge indicate that he has just received a knighthood from King Louis XVI.
Historic Paintings by Women in The Huntington’s Art Galleries
Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), Breakfast in Bed, 1897. Oil on canvas, 23 x 29 in.
Mary Cassatt was one of the first American women to achieve international recognition as a painter. In the 1880s, Cassatt began depicting the subject that absorbed her for the rest of her career: mothers and their children. She often dealt with the tension between a mother’s focused attention on her child and the child’s desire to explore the world. In Breakfast in Bed, the mother gazes at the child wrapped in her arms while the child looks out into the room. By focusing closely on the figures, Cassatt draws the viewer into the intimate scene.
Historic Paintings by Women in The Huntington’s Art Galleries
Sandy Rodriguez (b. 1975), Rodriguez-Mondragón’s Federal Indian Boarding Schools Map of the South Western United States and Child Migrant Detention Centers, 2022, hand-processed watercolor and 23K gold on amate paper, 94 x 94 in. (each panel: 94 x 47 in.). Collection of the artist.
As the 2020–21 Caltech-Huntington Art + Research Fellow, Los Angeles–based artist Sandy Rodriguez created new artworks that appear in “Borderlands,” including a map and a series of works on paper. Her research on native plants, colors, and paper recognizes and celebrates Indigenous knowledge and ways of representing the natural world. Several of her works feature native plants, which have been traditionally used in the region to treat respiratory illness—a powerful reference to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemics that ravaged Mexico in the 16th century.
Current Exhibition
Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight
Nov. 11, 2023–Nov. 30, 2025 | Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art
Renowned American artist Betye Saar’s large-scale work Drifting Toward Twilight—recently commissioned by The Huntington—is a site-specific installation that features a 17-foot-long vintage wooden canoe and found objects, including birdcages, antlers, and natural materials harvested by Saar from The Huntington’s grounds.
