PROGRAM

To continue marking Women’s History Month at Roosevelt House, please join us for a conversation about the ongoing effort to build a new Smithsonian Museum on the National Mall dedicated to preserving and celebrating the stories and accomplishments of American women.

Participants will include the museum director Elizabeth C. Babcock; co-chair of the museum’s founding advisory council Jane Abraham; actress Lynda Carter, known for her iconic role on 1970s hit television show Wonder Woman and member of the museum’s founding advisory council; the Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Leader in Residence at Roosevelt House and former congresswoman, Carolyn B. Maloney; and, as moderator, Jonathan F. Fanton Director of Roosevelt House Harold Holzer.

Since 1998, Carolyn Maloney has been leading the charge to establish an official women’s history museum at the nation’s capital. In what is hoped to be the final step for the museum project, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis recently introduced bipartisan legislation to transfer the needed land to the Smithsonian Institution—so that the museum can be built, at last, where its advocates believe it belongs, on the National Mall.

This discussion will highlight the imperative to establish an American Women’s History Museum—to amplify and expand our understanding of the essential and vital role of American women in the nation’s history.

Featuring:

Elizabeth C. Babcock is the director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. As the founding director, Babcock is leading the work to define the museum’s curatorial, programmatic, digital engagement, collections, and collaboration priorities, as well as contributing to the design and plans for the physical museum. In addition to her service as museum executive, she is a cultural anthropologist and educator with experience in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors. Previously, she served as the first president and CEO of Forever Balboa Park, an organization that acts as the City of San Diego’s key non-profit partner stewarding Balboa Park; and prior to that she was chief public engagement officer and Roberts-Wilson Dean of Education at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Jane Abraham is co-chair and a founding member of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum advisory council, and vice-chair of outreach and fundraising. Previously, she served as chair of the Congressional Commission to Study the Potential of a National Women’s History Museum. She has also served in management roles for the Republican Party at the state and national levels, and in consulting roles for various private sector companies through Abraham Strategies, a strategic marketing, government affairs, and event planning business she founded in 2002.

Lynda Carter is an actress, singer-songwriter, and founding member of the museum’s advisory council. Carter is best known for playing the title role in the television series Wonder Woman, which aired on ABC and later CBS from 1975 to 1979, based on the DC comic book fictional superhero character of the same name. She recently joined a bipartisan reception on Capitol Hill aimed at getting the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum built.

Hon. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Leader in Residence at Roosevelt House, represented the Upper East Side of Manhattan (and parts of Queens and Brooklyn) in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years. Maloney was the first woman to Chair the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and the Joint Economic Committee. She authored and passed more than 81 landmark measures, including the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the Postal Service Reform Act, and the Credit CARD Act. She is also a former Chair and current Board Member of the ERA Coalition.

Harold Holzer, moderator, has served since 2015 as the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. A prolific author with more than 50 books to his credit, he won the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Prize and a 2008 National Humanities Medal. He served 50 years ago as press secretary for a woman surely destined for recognition in the new museum: New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug.