West Side Rag ”A tribute to the life and legacy of RBG comes to the New-York Historical Society; ‘Not finished yet’

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Posted on October 3, 2021 at 10:34 am by Carol Tannenhauser

Photographs by Lisa Radla.

By Lisa Radla

A traveling exhibition from the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arrived at the New-York Historical Society on West 77th Street and Central Park West. It couldn’t be more timely, as the Supreme Court’s failure to block Texas’ restrictive abortion law reverberates across the country. Until January 23, 2022, museum visitors can revisit the struggles – and successes – of an earlier era through the life and legacy of the late Supreme Court Justice and civil rights pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg. .

Right inside the gallery, the sound of Ginsburg’s accent in Brooklyn greets you, a younger Ruth than most know. A video of Judge Ginsburg, then in her sixties, wearing a blue dress with her brown hair pulled back in a blue scrunchie, plays on loop. She answered questions in her 1993 confirmation hearings with various U.S. senators who, in the end, would easily affirm her nomination with a 96 to 3 vote.

Visitors walk through the life of Ginsburg, from the teenage girl who was appointed a “camp rabbi” at Camp Che-Na-Wah in 1948, to a photo of her as a bridesmaid at the wedding of a friend in 1951, and a 3D render of a bedroom in his childhood home in Brooklyn. Just around the corner from this part of the show is a striking sign listing “Some of the Things Women Couldn’t Do in the 1930s and 1940sâ€.

Meanwhile, women couldn’t practice law, receive equal pay for equal work, attend a military academy or Ivy League school, sit on a jury, wear pants on the floor of the United States Senate, owning property without a man controlling it, or opening a bank account without a man’s permission. The striking part is not just how antediluvian these things were, but how this little woman became the larger-than-life icon that was going to erase them.

This little woman has become a larger than life icon.

Ginsburg’s life mission, as the exhibit notes, was to secure the Constitution’s “We the People” promise for everyone. To do this, she first went to Cornell, where she graduated at the top of her class. At Harvard Law School, she became the school’s first female Law Review member before graduating first in her class at Columbia Law School (while residing at 404 West 116th Street).

Soon after, the women’s rights champion was arguing cases on the federal circuit and in the United States Supreme Court. The retrospective devotes a larger description to some of these cases. But there is a smaller section which is just as important. Entitled “Litigating Equality”, it details RBG’s role in a number of other cases, including the legal battle against the forced sterilization of black women and the fight to ensure equal rights for pregnant women and men who are pregnant. are denied survivor benefits on the basis of gender. distinctions.

Museum staff indicate at the start of the exhibit that photography is only allowed in two places: one is the giant red collage when you first enter and the other, thankfully, is at the very top. end. In an exhibition containing real gems of information and artifacts, where visitors were multigenerational, cross-cultural, and included slightly more women than men, the end could be the jewel in the crown.

The essentials (including the darling.)

Next to the 3D render of the country’s highest court is a glass enclosure. It contains Ginsburg’s dress and dissenting collar, her blue scrunchie and a pair of her white gloves that she initially wore at Judge Sandra Day O’Connor’s suggestion to protect herself while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. colon.

There is a very real representation of a detailed icon’s accomplishments throughout. The sense of loss and pride is palpable, made tangible by the sniffles, deep sighs and tears of many who have read and learned in silence about the struggles waged for them by RBG.

Opposite her personal items are photographs of city memorabilia, memorabilia and signs left behind by mourners after Judge Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020. “It was not her court, but she was me. said it could be mine, â€one panel read. “Thank you RBG. Rest in peace. We’re going to win this thing for you, â€notes another.

The final sign of the exhibit reads: “Not Done Yet” – a hopeful promise of the Notorious RBG’s legacy passing the torch to the next generation.

The New-York Historical Society is located on Central Park West between 76th and 77th streets. Hours: Wednesday – Thursday: 11 am-5pm; Friday: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturday to Sunday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (212) 873-3400 for more information on admission or click here.

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