Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries, chronicling the lives of everyone from heads of state to rock stars and the namer of the Slinky. But the vast majority of these obituaries have been of men, mostly white ones. Even women who had achieved a measure of fame in their lifetime were overlooked.
The Times recently decided to make up for that. Each week for the past year, the paper has published an obituary of a woman from history who was left out of the obituary pages—and, in most cases, your history textbooks.
In honor of Women’s History Month, here are the stories of five women—adapted from the Times’s obituary pages—who are finally getting their due.
Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries. These pieces have chronicled the lives of everyone from heads of state to rock stars and the namer of the Slinky. But the vast majority of these obituaries have been of men, mostly white ones. Even women who had achieved a measure of fame in their lifetimes were overlooked.
The Times recently decided to make up for that. Each week for the past year, the paper has published an obituary of a woman from history who was left out of the obituary pages. Many of these women have been left out of your history textbooks too.
In honor of Women’s History Month, here are the stories of five women who are finally getting their due. We’ve adapted them from the Times’s obituary pages.