Victoria Martínez, Writer

A place for all my stuff.

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One of the ways American Lucie Bigelow Rosen, née Dodge (1890-1968), used her tremendous social and financial privilege was to sponsor Léon Theremin, a Russian scientist who invented one of the first electronic musical instruments, the eponymous "theremin." She also became one of his pupils, learning to expertly play the unique instrument and performing in the U.S. and Europe. This beautiful portrait shows Lucie posing with her theremin, possibly at Caramoor, the country estate she and her husband, Walter Tower Rosen, built in New York. Per the couple's wishes, the estate became after their deaths a center for music and the arts, and is today known as the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (https://www.caramoor.org/). Lucie is one of the many women in history whose lives have never been properly studied and documented. From an episode in 1913 when she made international news for "running away" (this is the term that was used despite the fact that she was in her early 20s) from her mother's home to live an independent life, to her somewhat unconventional marriage, to her passionate dedication to music and art, Lucie's life is one that I believe is worthy of far more attention than it has received. Image courtesy Alchetron (https://alchetron.com/Lucie-Bigelow-Rosen#-), which also has many other photos of Lucie and some good background on her. Further background can be found at the following links: https://www.caramoor.org/about/history/ http://www.thereminworld.com/Article/13920/lucie-bigelow-rosen---getting-to-know-her http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-walter-tower-rosen-house-no-35-west.html #FemaleFriday #WriteAboutWomen #LucieBigelowRosen #Theremin #womenshistory #musichistory #Caramoor https://www.instagram.com/p/BzBLQvqIHS9/?igshid=1hpu9eez79hnm

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Four months after wealthy widow Eliza Jumel, née Bowen (1775-1865), married former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr in 1833, she realized he was doing his best to spend her fortune. To facilitate her divorce, Jumel sought a lawyer. But not just any lawyer. She hired none other than Alexander Hamilton, Jr., the son of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, whom Burr had killed in a duel in 1804. As it that wasn't enough poetic justice, the divorce became final on September 14, 1836, and Burr died that very day. Happy #FemaleFriday! For more information on Eliza Jumel, visit the following sites: https://www.saratoga.com/aboutsaratoga/history/eliza-jumel/ http://www.camillahuey.com/the-loves-of-aaron-burr-eliza-jumel https://www.mmejumel.com/ Image credit: Lithograph of Eliza Jumel, 1852, public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #history #womenshistory #wroteaboutwomen #elizajumel https://www.instagram.com/p/BysVT5YoNPN/?igshid=1teq10n6c9slq

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I found it incredible, though not terribly surprising, that Ester Blenda Nordström (1891-1948), who wrote what has been called "the first democratic girls' book in Sweden" and is hailed as Sweden's first undercover investigative journalist, was virtually forgotten to mainstream history until just a few years ago. Nordström was a pioneer of investigative journalism in Sweden and made history when she became the first journalist of either gender in that country to go undercover. As I wrote in my latest short history for The Local Sweden: "In the summer of 1914, she created a false identity for herself, complete with a fictional fiancé, and took a job as a maid on a farm near Nyköping to investigate the working conditions that were driving young Swedish women in the profession to leave Sweden for North America. Her experience and findings were published in a series of articles in Svenska Dagbladet under the title 'En månad som tjänstflicka på en bondgård i Södermanland' (A Month as a Servant Girl on a Farm in Södermanland)." She also created Sweden's first norm-defying young female character in her 1919 novel "En rackarunge" - a precursor to and inspiration of Astrid Lindgren's "Pippi Longstocking." In researching this article, I read the familiar words "she died virtually forgotten by the public." It was just three years ago that Swedish filmmaker Anna Hylander rescued Nordström from obscurity with her documentary film, "Ester Blenda." This was followed in 2017 by Swedish journalist and author Fatima Bremmer’s book "Ett jävla solsken," which won the Swedish literary award The August Prize for Nonfiction that same year (though not yet published in English, it has been given the English title The Lone Woman). My article, "The woman who introduced undercover journalism to Sweden" can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y2sk8bft (please note that the article is premium content). Photo of Ester Blenda Nordström courtesy Riksarkivet (Sweden's National Archives). #Sweden #history #womenshistory #journalism #writeaboutwomen #EsterBlendaNordström #EsterBlenda #Ettjävlasolsken https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BxSKdERJDSt/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=30ov3o5uwea5

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If this official poster for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will. Personally, it's become an almost indelible image in my mind since I've seen it so often while researching recent articles about or related to the early modern Olympics. Designed by Swedish artist Olle Hjortzberg (1872-1959), who is best known (not without irony) for painting religious murals in Swedish churches, the poster as you see it is actually a "toned down" version of his original illustration. According to historian Therese Nordlund Edvinsson: "The poster made by Hjortzberg resulted in a critical storm, mainly because of the male nudity and the placing of the flags. The Swedish Tourist Traffic Association was not willing to distribute the poster. Internationally, the poster was regarded inappropriate and even the placing of the flags was believed to cause envy among the participating countries." Hjortzberg was asked "to paint a more ‘neutral picture’ which should not offend anyone. Ironically, the artist came up with a new image, showing even more male nudity." Ultimately, though Hjortzberg's exceptionally creative use of ribbons preserved the male figure's modesty in the final revised poster, some critics still "claimed that the poster was immoral and should not be used to advertise for the Games." Yet another reason why I love both history and art. Therese Nordlund Edvinsson's quotes are excerpts from her 2014 article "Before the Sunshine: Organising and Promoting the Olympic Games in Stockholm 1912" in The International Journal of the History of Sport. You can read more about the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in my article for The Local Sweden, "The year Sweden organized the Olympics and defied expectations" (subscriber content) at https://tinyurl.com/yxpvwwur. Public domain image, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #history #art #Olympics #Stockholm #OlleHjortzberg https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BxHzPw3J4zE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1w97dmpana3mh

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Researching a recent article about Swedish history, I was reminded of some very significant U.S. history. At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Jim Thorpe (1887-1953), a Native American of the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, made history when he won two gold medals, one in the pentathlon and one in the decathlon. According to an article in Smithsonian magazine, "When King Gustaf V of Sweden placed two gold medals around Thorpe’s neck for winning the Olympic pentathlon and decathlon and pronounced him the greatest athlete in the world, he famously muttered, 'Thanks'..." (source: https://tinyurl.com/y359szzw) Tragically, the following year, Thorpe was stripped of those titles when it was decided that his previous involvement in professional baseball violated Olympic rules of the time requiring that athletes were amateurs. Thirty years after his death, Thorpe's titles were reinstated, and the official website of the Olympics now features the following statement: "Though he died in poverty, Jim Thorpe is remembered as one of the greatest sportsmen of the 20th century, having won two Olympic track and field golds and played baseball, American football and basketball at the highest level." (source: https://www.olympic.org/jim-thorpe) Image: Public domain image entitled "Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics" and dated July 23, 1912, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. My article about the 1912 Stockholm Olympics can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yxpvwwur (please note that it is subscriber content). #JimThorpe #1912Olympics #Stockholm #history https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/Bw2EWuvpyRg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=igt4w5hr4rsh

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Not everyone was convinced that Sweden was capable of hosting the fifth modern Olympic Games in 1912. According to historian Therese Nordlund Edvinsson, "critics argued that the country was too undeveloped to arrange a major sport event.” The country not only defied these critics by setting what British sports journalist Frank Keating called in 2012, "the gold standard for the modern Olympics," it also built a main venue that is today the world's oldest Olympic stadium actively in use. For more than a century, Stockholm Olympic Stadium has hosted countless sporting and cultural events, witnessed more than 80 athletic world records, survived a bombing, and simply reminded the world of its important place in Olympic history. I wrote about Stockholm Olympic Stadium, which Swedish architect Torben Grut designed with medieval fortress architecture in mind, in my latest short history article for The Local Sweden (subscriber content): https://www.thelocal.se/20190425/how-swedens-olympic-stadium-defied-expectations-again-and-again Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons: the opening ceremonies of the 1912 Summer Olympics in the stadium; Stockholm Olympic Stadium in 2012, hosting (as it does each year) the start and finish of the Stockholm Marathon (by Wikimedia user Holger.Ellgaard). #Sweden #history #SummerOlympics #Stockholm https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BwrvTZIpQ74/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mfv4bih7muym

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Sitting in The Great Hall of the Danish royal Fredericksborg Castle are these two magnificent sculptures known as the empress statues because they depict two Danish princesses - sisters - who both became empress consorts. On the left is the elder sister, Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), who married in 1863 the eldest son of Britain's Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Edward, The Prince of Wales. In 1901, he succeeded his mother as King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, making Alexandra Queen and Empress Consort. Her likeness is by French sculptor Henri Chapu (1833-1891), and was completed in (I believe) 1890. On the right is her younger sister, Princess Dagmar of Denmark (1847-1928), who married in 1866 the eldest surviving son of Tsar (Emperor) Alexander II of Russia, the Tsarevich Alexander. Just prior to her marriage, Dagmar converted to the Russian Orthodox religion and changed her name to Maria Feodorovna. When her husband succeeded his father as Tsar Alexander III in 1881, she became Empress Consort (Tsarina). This statue was created by French sculptor Jean Gautherin, and completed in 1889. Interestingly, the statues were commissioned circa 1885 not by the Danish royal family, but by the Danish art collector and philanthropist Carl Jacobsen, whose father founded the Carlsberg brewery. Jacobsen was also responsible for commissioning the famous sculpture of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. According to the New Carlsberg Foundation, Jacobsen "wanted to add the two empress statues to his rapidly growing art collection in order to make it an even more attractive gift to the City of Copenhagen." (https://www.ny-carlsbergfondet.dk/en/birth-empress-statues) Personal photos taken at Fredericksborg Castle in Hillerød, Denmark, in April 2019. Please credit properly when sharing. #art #history https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/Bwm16U1J96p/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jx34aesayf1g

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Esther (sometimes spelled Ester) Ellqvist-Bauer (b. 1880) was a Swedish artist whose life was cut short in 1918, when she, her husband (the artist John Bauer), their young son, and 39 others drowned following a ferry accident on Sweden's Lake Vättern. Esther studied art at the University of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack) and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), both in Stockholm. It was at the Royal Academy that she met John Bauer, whom she married in 1906. Following the marriage and the birth of the couple's son in 1915, Esther's career took a backseat to John's, but there is evidence that she was planning to resume her artistic endeavors in 1918, when the family boarded the ill-fated steam ferry Per Brahe bound for a new life in Stockholm. I wrote recently about the sinking of the Per Brahe in an article for The Local Sweden (subscriber content), which can be found here: https://www.thelocal.se/20190404/the-day-swedens-trolls-and-fairies-wept Image: Self Portrait, Esther Ellqvist, 1910, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #FemaleFriday #EstherEllqvist #art #WriteAboutWomen #Sweden https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BwKHHEwAb0f/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ssxn99y9524t

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I've posted before about Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren's (1907-2002) writing beyond Pippi Longstocking, particulary in books like "Kati in America" (1950) in which she addressed institutional racism and discrimination in the United States. For this week's #FemaleFriday, I'm featuring yet another facet of her oeuvre: the diaries she kept during the Second World War before she was a published author. Though she was living in Stockholm in neutral Sweden, Lindgren spent part of the war working as a postal censor, a highly secretive job that required her to read military and private mail going in and out of Sweden and redact sensitive or classified information. As her daughter noted, however, "the restrictions did not prevent her from copying out, or quoting sections of, the more interesting letters in her diary…". The diaries also document the origins and evolution of Pippi Longstocking, which would propel her to prominence when the first book was published in 1945. Between 1939 and 1945, Lindgren filled 17 diaries with her thoughts, experiences and related press clippings. After the war, they were tucked away in a wicker laundry basket in her Stockholm apartment, where they went undiscovered until 2013. Two years later, these were published in a Swedish-language book, folllowed in 2016 by an English translation entitled, "War Diaries, 1939–1945" (https://amzn.to/2OQRHpb). This book is one of eight books about Swedish history written in or translated into English that I highlighted in my recent article for The Local Sweden, "Eight books that tell hidden stories from Sweden's history" (https://bit.ly/2Ui5J9p). It is also the first book being read in The Local Sweden's Book Club (https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelocalswedenbookclub/). Public domain image of Astrid Lindgren in 1924, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #History #Sweden #AstridLindgren #WorldWarII #WriteAboutWomen https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/Bv3yAAIAxM4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1trfmjhfvfh2w

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In the area of Sweden in which I live, thick and sometimes seemingly endless forests surround us. At the risk of sounding cliché, they are often other-worldly places where ancient traditions of Nordic mysticism seem to come alive. Few have captured this as well as Swedish artist John Bauer did in the early 1900s. His countless illustrations for the Swedish folk and fairy tale annual Bland tomtar och troll (Among Gnomes and Trolls) "reflected… a world where the physical reality and the mythical are present at the same time", according to Sweden’s ​National Encyclopedia. ​ In my latest short #ThrowbackThursday article for The Local Sweden, "The day Sweden’s trolls and fairies wept" (https://bit.ly/2UdmMt6 - subscriber content), I briefly explore Bauer's art, his tragic death in 1918, and his lasting legacy. Image: Bauer's llustration of Walter Stenström's The boy and the trolls or The Adventure in anthology Among Gnomes and Trolls, 1915, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #Sweden #history #JohnBauer #EstherElqvist #art https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/Bv1vvugAQh8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wwukziaewt00

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Here's one to add to the category of "blatant misogyny in history"... While researching a recent article I wrote about a Swedish woman who in the 1940s repeatedly broke the world record in the 800 meter race (which women were forbidden from running in the Olympic games), I came across a quote by the "father" of the modern Olympic games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin (French, 1863-1937). "He thought including women’s competitions was 'impractical, uninteresting, ungainly, and, I do not hesitate to add, improper.' He also said, 'Woman’s glory rightfully came through the number and quality of children she produced, and that where sports were concerned, her greatest accomplishment was to encourage her sons to excel rather than to seek records for herself.'" (Source: Jules Boykoff for The Telegraph - http://tinyurl.com/y5r56sph) They sure did look nice in classical form on the posters, however. 🤨 Image: "Poster for the 1900 Summer Olympics" in Paris, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/Bvy7J6qgtKZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=dcrmdjg0l08z

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For the final #FemaleFriday of Women's History Month, I'm highlighting another women whose work in the field of women's history has and does inspire me in my historical research and writing. British historian Sheila Rowbotham's (b. 1943) 1973 book "Hidden From History: Rediscovering Women in History From the 17th Century to the Present" was one of the first I read on the subject that just absolutely blew me away. I even sent her a gushing email, and was thrilled to get a very thoughtful response. The book remains a well-read, much-marked, and frequently-cited volume on my bookshelf. Like the other women I have featured, she is a prolific writer, with many great works to her name; I only single out "Hidden From History" here because it remains my favorite. Below I quote a passage from the Introduction to the American Edition, the volume I own, which was published in 1976. It is not an inspirational quote, per se, but rather one that I follow as a principle in my research and writing in general: "We need to combine popular enthusiasm and directness of style with painstaking research, even though present-day society, with its pressures of work, money and political activity, makes it difficult for one person to supply both." The image Sheila Rowbotham in the graphic I've created is courtesy Pluto Press (https://www.plutobooks.com/author/sheila-rowbotham/). You can find more about Sheila here (https://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/sheila.rowbotham/publications) and here (https://www.bl.uk/people/sheila-rowbotham). #WomensHistoryMonth #SheilaRowbotham #WomensHistory #WriteAboutWomen #Feminism https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BvmWZ2ZAyu3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1th9asxmn91pe

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By now, you've undoubtedly heard of "The Green Book" - and by that, I don't just mean the film, I mean the actual guidebook that helped African Americans literally and figuratively navigate Jim Crow America. But while this important part of American history is actively being written, little more than a few lines have ever been dedicated to the "mother" of the Green Book, Alma Duke Green. Her life and her contributions to the Green Book were and still are obscured by the double burden of racism and sexism, and primary source material on her is correspondingly scarce. But after seeing Alma's name briefly mentioned in an article, I began doing research on her to see what I could find. It turned out to be a glorious rabbit hole in which I was immediately immersed in following a paper trail that enabled me to begin to sketch out this remarkable woman. I had hoped that a mainstream magazine might be interested in her story, but - alas - though I was told more than once it was a great story, not a single outlet I contacted would publish it. So, as I often do, I have published it on my blog, and hope that it will help to begin the writing of a new narrative of the Green Book that includes its "mother." https://abitofhistoryblog.com/2019/03/25/the-mother-of-the-green-book-ignored-by-history/ Image of Alma Duke Green, pictured in the 1961 edition of “The Green Book” (courtesy New York Public Library). #WomensHistoryMonth #WriteAboutWomen #TheGreenBook #AlmaDukeGreen https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BveeKolgccM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=z5g648hegwmr

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The Mother of the Green Book Ignored by History

Another example of a women who was not only left out of history, but whose absence has rarely been questioned or investigated.

While the Green Book has become something of a buzzword lately thanks to Hollywood, the “mother” of the essential guide for African Americans navigating Jim Crow America has been overlooked and all but lost to history.

Victoria Martínez

The cover of the 1961 issue (NYPL).

In 1961, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, known simply as the Green Book, had been helping African Americans…

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Though she is not a scholar or theorist of women's history per se, American academic, feminist and social critic bell hooks (the pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins; b. 1952) inspires and informs my research and writing of women in history. It is for this reason that I dedicate this #FemaleFriday of #WomensHistoryMonth to this articulate and brilliantly outspoken woman. The quote I've highlighted in the graphic below is from her 1994 book, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. While I am a writer, not a teacher, I do feel strongly that writing and teaching are - or at least can be - two sides of the same coin. This particular quote speaks perfectly to what I believe is the importance of applying feminist theory to my research into and my writing about women in history. Here's the quote in its entirety: "Reflecting on my own work in feminist theory, I find writing - theoretical talk - to be most meaningful when it invites readers to engage in critical reflection and to engage in the practice of feminism." - bell hooks You can learn more about bell hooks and her incredible body of work at the website of the bell hooks Institute of Berea College: http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com #bellhooks #feminism #history #writeaboutwomen https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BvUaEd3AoLU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=viei0prdxihb

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The fact that I have a birthday coming up probably made me a little more sensitive to the statistics I came across recently about average life expectancy 100 years ago. While researching an article about Sweden in 1916, the first thing that struck me was that the average person had a greater chance of dying from an infectious disease than of old age. Then, I realized that "old age" at that time basically began in the mid- to late-40s. From approximately 1916 to 1920, the average life expectancy in Sweden was 55.6 for men and 58.38 for women. In the U.S. and Britain, the numbers were about the same, though in Britain the average life expectancy for women went all the way up to 60. The situation was far more grim elsewhere, however. In Italy, for instance, the average life expectancy in 1920 was 44.9 for men and 46 for women. Even worse, in Spain - where my husband is from - it was a tragic 38.7 for men and 40.78 for women. So, happy early birthday to me. By the standards of a century ago, I am rapidly approaching - if not already in the midst of - old age! You can read the article I wrote for The Local Sweden, "The Tree That Was There When Sweden Changed for Good," at https://www.thelocal.se/20190314/the-tree-that-was-there-when-sweden-changed-for-good Image: An Old Woman Reading (1655) by Rembrandt, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #history #oldage #lifeexpectancy https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/BvMo0uYALdW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1sgqk7qojxg0

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While researching a recent article about "mixed bathing" in the early 1900s, I came across an article from 1920 that made me both cringe and laugh. I couldn't use it in the article, so I'm sharing an excerpt of it here. Definitely a "you've come a long way, baby" read. “The short-haired woman has the decided advantage in sea bathing. She need not wear those appalling rubber caps which are hideous enough to justify divorce on the spot. And, by the way, it is surprising to notice how few women show to advantage when bathing. An English magistrate has just been advocating separate bathing beaches for men and women at seaside resorts. He does not seem to be an uplifter or a purist. He bases his demand on public policy. Broken engagements, he says, and therefore a lowered marriage rate result from mixed bathing. Women do not show to advantage when they are in the water or after they leave it. A wet woman is usually uncharming to the eye. She is unattractive when covered by an adequate bathing dress. She is apt to be still more uncharming if the bathing dress is inadequate, as it usually is.” -excerpt from an article in "The Argonaut" (San Francisco, Calif.) July 10, 1920. Image credit: "Bathing Beach, 1920," (public domain) courtesy U.S. Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016828042/) The article I wrote about mixed bathing, "The Swedish beach that was the Ibiza of the early 1900s" (subscriber content), can be found at https://www.thelocal.se/20190307/the-swedish-beach-that-was-the-ibiza-of-the-early-1900s #womenshistorymonth #womenshistory #writeaboutwomen #swimsuits #mixedbathing #1920sfashion #1920s https://www.instagram.com/victoriamartinezwriter/p/Bu30rb9AiVq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1wwq23td6ti6l