Liberty 1915: One Cartoon, Many Stories

Liberty 1915: One Cartoon, Many Stories

Recognized for her incisive observation that “well behaved women seldom make history,” Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich will discuss the image of Liberty and its use in the quest for women's rights, including in the Puck centerfold of 1915 that portrays a dynamic Lady Liberty striding across the United States from west to east. Dr. Ulrich is the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University, Emerita and the author of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, The Age of Homespun and A Midwife’s Tale. 

The Museum will open at 5:30 p.m. with the lecture at 6 p.m. Book signing and reception to follow. 

This event is sponsored by Chase, PECO, Qurate Retail Group, the Arcadia Foundation and the Chester County Fund for Women and Girls. 


A former MacArthur Fellow and a past president of the American Historical Association, Dr. Ulrich's book, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785–1812 (1990), won the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent book is A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870 (2017).