When I think about Women’s History Month, it conjures up images of suffragettes and mothers, tea and sympathy, trailblazing scientists, sirens, bloody queens, burning bras, shotgun brides, downhill…
On March 7, 2025, the New York Times included me, well, more precisely, something I owned, in a feature story regarding materials that were salvaged from the Eaton Fire. By the time the item and my…
We left Sarah Bernhardt accepting a very lucrative offer to perform in Southern California, and despite reports to the contrary, it was not the only prospect—but it was the only realistic prospect. To…
Just before 6 p.m. on the afternoon of May 18, 1906, twenty-year-old Highland Park resident Elizabeth Beatty stepped onto the boardwalk of the newest amusement pier in Los Angeles County. Jutting out…
On a pleasant summer evening in 1891, the Los Angeles Herald's theater critic attended a play that ran for exactly one night. The play was conservatively described by the critic as "interesting," but…
The Derringer Press ConferenceThe Derringer press conference is what Judge Cannon became infamous for, and the blowback would be mighty. The popular narrative often goes something like this: Judge…
At the Vernon - Leon H. Washington Jr. Memorial Branch Library, there is a wall in the meeting room adorned with four framed portraits. Two are paintings: one depicts writer Langston Hughes and is a…
On Wednesday, May 17, 1967, a petite woman sporting a pink babydoll dress and white patent leather Mary Jane shoes pulled a pearl-handled Derringer revolver and pointed it in the direction of Los…
When Gertrude Darlow joined the Los Angeles Public Library in October 1893, there were less than twenty employees. During her thirty-plus years with the library, she worked under seven City Librarians…
In honor of World Poetry Day, I would like to bring attention to, of course, a poet, Margaret Walker but also a sculptor and artist, Elizabeth Catlett, and a book that features the two women’s…
Women’s work—inside and outside the home—has always been a part of American life. But the reality of work has not always been easy. Through marches, strikes, boycotts, and organizing, women have…
Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz is a nationally renowned doctor, expert, speaker, and advocate for integrative women's health. And she's on a mission! She's exploring what it means to be a healthy woman in…
While scouring microfilm in the History & Genealogy Department at Central Library a few months back, I was startled to see a name that seemed entirely out of place in a particular publication. The…
The Los Angeles Public Library has seven and a "half" branches dedicated to extraordinary women. Let’s take a look at these women and their namesake libraries for Women’s History Month. Vermont Square…
