On the Lower East Side: 28 Remarkable Women... And One Scoundrel

The Museum at Eldridge Street is proud to present a new exhibition featuring 29 women who lived or worked on the Lower East Side of New York at the turn of the twentieth century. Their mixed media portraits by artist Adrienne Ottenberg incorporate maps of the Lower East Side neighborhood and are printed on silk or cotton banners that will be hung throughout the Museum’s gallery and historic sanctuary. Stories about the women highlight the work, life, and impact they made culturally, on social justice movements, and more.

Those featured in the exhibition include political activist Frances Perkins, who upon witnessing the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, took on an influential role in the workers-rights advocacy movement, which led her to eventually become President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor--the first ever woman cabinet member; suffragette and activist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee who campaigned for women’s rights to vote and was the first Chinese woman in the United States to earn her doctorate; and public healthcare worker Elizabeth Tyler, who was the first Black nurse hired at Henry Street Settlement, and went on later to establish the Stillman House Settlement on Manhattan's West Side, which provided health care and social services to the Black community in San Juan Hill.  The show will be accompanied by an audio guide through Bloomberg Connects in which 29 people–Eldridge docents, staffers, the artist, and descendants of the historic women–speak the parts of those portrayed in the show.

Adrienne Ottenberg lives and works in New York City. Her work combines traditional drawing and painting with digital media. After many years doing editorial and book illustration, she found herself creating maps, and subsequently earned an MA in geography at CUNY to learn computer mapping. She has illustrated more than a dozen books, created frontispiece maps and endpapers, and created illustrated maps for gallery shows. She is inspired by historical maps and how we each create and bring meaning to the map of our own lives.

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