Smithsonian Affiliate Calendar

A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh Exhibition

From pioneering investigative journalism to leading their country to Olympic gold, Western Pennsylvania women have made an immeasurable impact in America, but too often, their stories have been overlooked. 

Beginning this spring, the History Center will flip the script and take an unprecedented deep dive into the lives of these fierce and unflappable women who helped change the world inside a major new exhibition, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh.

Take an interactive, thematic journey through women’s history from the early 1800s to modern day that will showcase the stories of entrepreneurs and activists, artists and athletes, scientists and inventors, and changemakers and barrier breakers. Through more than 250 artifacts, immersive experiences, and striking archival images, A Woman’s Place will reveal how women have made Pittsburgh and the world a better place.

Explore rare artifacts like the small handbag carried around the world in 1889 by legendary journalist Nellie Bly, who traveled the globe in just 72 days, more than a week faster than Jules Verne’s fictional character Phileas Fogg in “Around the World in 80 Days.” 

Discover the stories of “real life” Rosie the Riveters, from the Western Pennsylvanians who worked the mills during World War II and helped inspire the iconic Rosie poster, to the modern day “Girls of Steel” – the all-girls robotics team at Carnegie Mellon University.

Exhibit highlights include:

• Clothing and textiles from the 1830s through today, including the inauguration dress worn by Sophie Masloff – the first and only female mayor of Pittsburgh – and a costume from the National Negro Opera Company 
• Original sketches from Peggy Owens Skillen, who helped to create the modern version of the iconic PBS show “Sesame Street” 
• Protest posters, buttons, and other objects that tell the story of women’s suffrage and how Pittsburghers like Lucy Kennedy Miller and Winifred Meek Morris fought for the right to vote 
• A special section on athletes featuring the Olympic jersey of basketball legend and McKeesport native Swin Cash; Suzie McConnell Serio’s WNBA jersey; and a leather baseball glove used by Betsy Jochum of the South Bend (Ind.) Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History