Remember the #Ladies: Women Printers and the Social Media of the American Revolution

Join us for a free Zoom event with Dr. Nora Slonimsky commemorating Women’s History Month 2022. From Common Sense to the Declaration of Independence, there are many iconic publications associated with the American Revolution. The importance of printing and of communication before, during, and after the War for Independence is well established, with the social networks of the eighteenth century playing just as big a role in society as their digital counterparts do today. Women printers were pivotal to this work of the revolutionary movement, and yet they are often given only a small role in the history of media in the late eighteen century. This talk will remember, in the words of Abigail Adams, some of these ladies, women like Elizabeth Hunter Holt and Mary Katherine Goddard, and consider what impact their work had on Alexander and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.

Dr. Nora Slonimsky is the Gardiner Assistant Professor of History at Iona College, where she also serves as Director of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS). Nora’s research focuses on the intersection of intellectual property, commerce, and politics in colonial, revolutionary, and early national America. She is currently working on her first book, The Engine of Free Expression: Copyrighting The State in Early America, which is forthcoming with the University of Pennsylvania Press and won the Society for the History of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) prize for best manuscript. Alexander Hamilton features prominently in several chapters of Copyrighting the State, particularly in his role as one of the first IP lawyers in the United States! This project, as well as other research in the Digital Humanities, has been supported by the Huntington Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the New York Historical Society, and the America Antiquarian Society, among others. Nora also serves as the Social Media Editor for the Journal of the Early Republic, and teaches courses ranging from the American Revolution to copyright and innovation in US history that have digital and public history components.

You can follow her on twitter @NoraSlonimsky or check out her website, www.hamiltonsolo.com.