5 NYC Women Who Changed History
March is Women’s History Month, and to celebrate, here are 5 NYC women who changed the course of history. Women have shaped NYC history through society, architecture, engineering, and even combat. These fierce females are just a handful of the incredible historical NYC women that have helped make the Big Apple great.
Alva Vanderbilt
Caroline Astor was the sparkling paragon of Manhattan’s elite during the gilded age, the epitome of old money. She kept a list of 400 families who she considered the most fashionable socialites of the time, and everyone wanted to be on her list. She would host incredibly lavish balls, and everyone wanted an invitation. One woman who did not receive an invitation easily was Alva Vanderbilt. In fact, Mrs. Caroline Astor worked hard to keep Alva Vanderbilt out of society.
Alva Vanderbilt would not be kept down. When Alva Vanderbilt was refused a box at the esteemed Academy of Music, she decided to fund her own musical venture. This would go on to become what we know today as the Metropolitan Opera. Alva Vanderbilt was a fierce woman who knew what she wanted and wouldn’t stop until she got it.
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was an incredible NYC woman who forever changed the way mental health is viewed in the United States. In 1887, Joseph Pulitzer sent Nellie Bly on a risky underground investigative reporting venture. She was to go to an asylum on Blackwell’s Island, under the guise of being a patient. She would write about the treatment of those in the madhouse. She maintained her cover for 10 days, and her report would later be turned into a book called “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” and it prompted the asylum, and asylums across the country to make massive reforms.
Emily Roebling
The Brooklyn Bridge is often considered one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World. At the time it was built, it was the longest suspension bridge on the planet. People who walked over it equated it to what they imagined walking on the moon would feel like. It was definitely a feat of ingenious engineering. It was designed by John Roebling, but John Roebling died before construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge. His son Washington Roebling quickly took over, but shortly after Washington Roebling came down with the bends and had to sign off of the project. The field engineer who took over was Washington Roebling’s wife, Emily Roebling. This was 50 years before women had the right to vote in all 50 states. Emily Roebling is considered America’s very first female engineer, and the Brooklyn Bridge exists because of woman power.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Vincent was a poet who moved to Greenwich village in 1917, and used her poetry to promote feminist activism, and often went into detail about topics others found taboo, ranging from not-safe-for-work, to women divorcing their husbands. She also loved to party, and was described as a
“a frivolous young woman, with a brand-new pair of dancing slippers and a mouth like a valentine.” She was wild, overt, defiant and ultramodern for her time.
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker only lived in NYC briefly during the Harlem renaissance before moving to Paris, where she would rise to great fame and become a cultural ambassador for black American artists in Europe. While you might know her for her burlesque numbers, including her banana skirt number, she was also a member of the Resistance during World War II. She had adopted France as her new home and wanted to aid them however she could, and fight discrimination in every form. She used her fame (and even her sheet music!) as a cover to smuggle covert messages over borders, and truly helped the allied powers claim victory.
Is there a NYC woman you’d like to honor? Celebrate her in light by putting her photo on a giant Times Square billboard. How much does it cost to put a photo on a Times Square billboard? With Welcome to Times Square, you can put a photo on a billboard for as little as $150 a day. Learn more at wlecometotimessquare.com