Annie Polland, “Midwives, Cooks, Palmists, and Housewives: Jewish Immigrant Women in the Tenements of NYC”

FAYE GREENBERG SIGMAN “WOMAN OF VALOR” LECTURE 

In the 1900 manuscript census, husbands/fathers, teenage sons, and daughters are listed with occupations: tailors, butchers, peddlers, clerks, sewing machine operators. The majority of mothers/wives enumerated, however, have a blank in the occupation column. This lecture explores how women’s crucial economic and cultural roles are brought to life at the Tenement Museum, and draws on memoirs, cookbooks, midwife ledgers, advertisements, and newspaper accounts to discuss forgotten women of valor who deserve to be remembered.

Dr. Annie Polland is a public historian, author, and President of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society. She is the co-author, with Daniel Soyer, of Emerging Metropolis: New York Jews in the Age of Immigration, winner of the 2012 National Jewish Book Award. She received her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University and served as Vice President of Education at the Museum at Eldridge Street, where she wrote Landmark of the Spirit.

The Faye Sigman Lecture is made possible by the generosity of the Taxman and Temkin families.

Cosponsored by Jewish Museum Milwaukee and UWM’s Departments of History and Women’s and Gender Studies; and the Urban Studies and Museum Studies programs.

Register for Zoom at: https://bit.ly/4gm1bpT

Paid Parking available at UWM Student Union Parking, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.