Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

Photo

About Me

I am a historian of American and Women’s history based in New York City, with a background in public history, labor, and material culture. 

I was a Curatorial Scholar in Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society from 2016-2020. I co-curated major gallery exhibitions, a permanent digital installation, and case exhibits, wrote blog posts, led public programs, and helped create the Women Have Always Worked Massive Open Online Course with Alice Kessler-Harris. 

At present I am teaching in the Museum Studies masters program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. I have taught American, Women’s, and Public History at Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase, and SUNY Empire State College.

My doctorate is in American and Women’s History from Rutgers University (2004) where I worked with Alice Kessler-Harris and Nancy Hewitt.  My book, “Make It Yourself”: Home Sewing, Gender, and Culture, 1890-1930, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007) is available at www.gutenberg-e.org/gordon.

 

Recent Publications

« Créer des expositions sur le suffrage, un enjeu et un plaisir », Le centenaire du 19e amendement aux Etats-Unis : enjeux politiques et historiographiques, coordonné par Hélène Quanquin, IdeAs [En ligne], 16 | 2020, mis en ligne le 01 octobre 2020. http://journals.openedition.org/ideas/9926 

“Staging Women’s History,” in Samantha De Vera and Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, eds, “The Politics of Curating Memory: Suffrage 100 Years Later,” Women and Social Movements in the United States, September 2020.

Women at the Center Blog, New-York Historical Society, “Activism on Film in Women March,” August 31, 2020. http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/activism-on-film-in-women-march/

Women at the Center Blog, New-York Historical Society, “Remembering the NAACP’s 1917 Silent Protest Parade and the Refusal to Accept “Barbaric Acts,” June 3, 2020. http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/remembering-the-naacps-1917-silent-protest-parade-and-the-refusal-to-accept-barbaric-acts/

Women at the Center Blog, New-York Historical Society, “Female Remedies: A Little Show Draws a Big Response,” June 10, 2019, http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/female-remedies-a-little-show-draws-a-big-response/

Women at the Center Blog, New-York Historical Society, “Sharing Women’s Voices with our Colleagues,” May 1, 2018,  http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/sharing-womens-voices/

“Liberating Fashion: Feminism and Women’s Clothing in the 1960s,” in Phyllis Magidson, ed., Mod New York: Fashion Takes A Trip (New York: Museum of the City of New York & The Monacelli Press, 2017), 93-104.

Media Coverage

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/arts/hotbed-exhibition-new-york-historical-society.html, https://medium.com/metropolitan-archivist/exhibit-review-life-six-women-photographers-eea23d9a891d, https://www.thecut.com/2019/10/review-life-six-women-photograph

Social Media

@SarahAnneGordon

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

19th century, 20th century

Expertise by Topic

Gender, Labor, Material Culture, Museums, Public History, Women