Honoring Trailblazing Women in New York City History
Ask anyone about New York City history, and you’ll usually be presented with a familiar list of historical figures: Frederick Law Olmsted, master designer of Central Park; Theodore Roosevelt, New York governor and later United States president; Robert Moses, leader of much of the city’s 20th-century urban development. These contributions were undoubtedly monumental, but they only represent the White, male fraction of history that is spotlighted in most school textbooks. It was women of all backgrounds, races, and sexualities who planted many of the seeds that have grown into the Big Apple as we know it today. Without female New Yorkers, the Brooklyn Bridge may never have been completed, nor would some of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods have survived developers’ destructive plans.
So, in honor of this Women’s History Month, grab your map, put on your historian’s cap, and imagine yourself on the city streets as we embark on a tour through five neighborhoods where female New Yorkers made history.
Our tour begins in Washington Heights, a vibrant community at the Northern tip of Manhattan where Fort Washington stood strong during the American Revolutionary War. The neighborhood itself is named after George Washington, but nestled at the entrance to one of its parks is a plaque dedicated to a lesser-known war hero: Margaret Corbin.
On November 16, 1776, as Fort Washington was attacked by the British, Corbin dressed in male attire and joined her soldier husband on the battlefield, helping him load his cannon on a ridge overlooking enemy troops. When her husband was killed, Corbin took over his post, firing the cannon despite her three bullet wounds and earning praise from fellow soldiers for her steady arm. Three years later, Congress’ Board of War commended Corbin’s heroism by granting her half the monthly pay of a soldier in the Continental Army, making her the first woman in United States history to receive a congressional military pension. Through her courage, Corbin paved the way for countless other women to serve the country in the armed forces.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Emily Warren Roebling helped build the Brooklyn Bridge and advocated for gender equality.
Next on our tour is the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the city’s architectural wonders - perhaps because it has a woman’s touch. In 1872, as construction for the bridge was underway, the chief engineer, Washington Roebling, developed a bed-ridden disease. Roebling’s wife, Emily Warren Roebling, quickly took over her husband’s work, relaying information from his bed to workers at the construction site. While Roebling was severely ill, his wife’s role became more than that of a mere messenger: she developed extensive knowledge of architectural lingo, supervised day-to-day construction, communicated progress to politicians, and ultimately saw the world’s tallest suspension bridge to completion. Margaret Roebling was the first person to cross the bridge when the ribbon was cut in 1883, and she devoted the rest of her life to fighting for gender equality.
Several miles from Roebling’s bridge is the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where another female New Yorker, Shirley Chisholm, shattered race and gender barriers in 1970s U.S. politics. Born and raised in Bed-Stuy, Chisholm was catapulted to national fame when she became the first Black woman to be elected to Congress, running her campaign on the motto “Unbought and Unbossed.” As a representative for the congressional district containing Bed-Stuy, Chisholm fought to expand programs for inner-city residents in her community, championed the cause of racial equity, and only hired female staff members, half of whom were Black. In 1972, Chisholm further normalized the presence of Black women in politics through her groundbreaking run for the presidency. Many of today’s female government leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, cite Chisholm as a political pioneer whose footsteps they continue to walk in.
Our next stop is SoHo, a bustling neighborhood widely known for its cobblestone streets and cast-iron architecture. Without the work of community activist Margot Gayle, however, the charm of SoHo would likely have been extinguished, its unique buildings replaced by glass towers and urban renewal projects. When an expressway threatened to cut through SoHo in 1970, Gayle founded a preservationist group called Friends of Cast Iron Architecture, motivated by her passion for protecting the Victorian-style, antiquated architecture of downtown New York. Through community organizing and creative methods including using magnets to prove that building facades were really made of iron, Gayle successfully helped kill the freeway plan in 1971. Her efforts ultimately led to the creation of the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District, which protects the neighborhood’s historic architecture from destruction by future development plans.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Marsha P. Johnson fought for LGBTQIA+ rights.
Located near SoHo is Greenwich Village, the final destination on our journey through women’s history. Here, drag queen and transgender icon Marsha P. Johnson - the informal “mayor of Christopher Street'' - ruled street life. Known for her colorful attire and outspoken personality, Johnson was one of the first drag queens to hang out at the Stonewall Inn after it opened to people other than gay men. During the Stonewall Riots of 1969 - a series of demonstrations by the city’s LGBTQIA+ community that erupted into a nationwide movement for LGBTQIA+ rights - Johnson spearheaded the resistance, famously shimmying up a lamp-post to drop a weight on a police car below. In 1970, along with fellow drag queen Sylvia Rivera, she established the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, one of the country’s first organizations for transgender rights.
Ultimately, these five women are only a portion of female New Yorkers whose historical contributions have been overlooked in studies of the city’s past. This Women’s History Month (and during every month to follow), make it your goal to educate yourself on the historical and current achievements of women around the city, country, and globe. Whether this means visiting the New York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History, observing new exhibitions of artwork by womenat the MET, or watching the Apollo Theater’s “Women of the World Festival,” the city offers a range of exciting ways to begin.
