feminism

Kiki Smith's Dowry Book

Kiki Smith’s Dowry Book is an intimate, palm-sized collection of images, each representing an exhibition Smith had between 1982 and 1995, a time when she was particularly focused on issues of AIDS, gender, and race. The Hirshhorn Library’s copy is from a limited edition of 800 signed copies, issued in a plain, cardboard slipcase, and designed by Smith on a computer. The illustrated cloth boards reproduce Smith’s Dowry Cloth, 1990, made of women’s hair and sheep’s wool felted together.

Geological Text-Book

Amos Eaton was an educator and skilled amateur scientist best remembered for bringing hands-on applied science to the American educational curriculum. In 1824, he co-founded the Rensselaer School in New York, an institution dedicated to "the application of science to the common purposes of life," with Stephen van Rensselaer III. He lectured widely, training teachers, including many women, and was an advocate for women's involvement in higher education, an unconventional idea at the time.