Edith P. Mayo (born March 18, 1940) is an American historian.
She is curator emerita for political history at the
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...
. Mayo is a subject matter expert on
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
, specifically African American women's suffrage, and the
first ladies of the United States
The first lady of the United States is the hostess of the White House. The position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, but, on occasion, the title has been applied to women who were not presidents' wives, s ...
. She has been featured on
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
,
''
The Morning Call
''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after ''The Express-Times''. In 2020, the newspaper permanently closed its Al ...
'',
the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'',
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
,
''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'',
and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' regarding her areas of focus.
In 2020, she was named an honoree of the
National Women's History Alliance.
Early life and education
Mayo earned her degree in
American History
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...
from
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
. She was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
.
Career
![Edith Mayo with 1913 Suffrage March Banner at Alice Paul Memorial March](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Edith_Mayo_with_1913_Suffrage_March_Banner_at_Alice_Paul_Memorial_March.jpg)
Mayo was an adjunct professor at
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
, where she taught
material culture
Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...
as part of a co-branded program with the university and the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
.
She is a Distinguished Lecturer for the
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...
.
She serves on the board of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial.
In 1995, she wrote the foreword for
Doris Stevens
Doris Stevens (born Dora Caroline Stevens, October 26, 1888 – March 22, 1963) was an American suffragist, woman's legal rights advocate and author. She was the first female member of the American Institute of International Law and first chai ...
's book ''Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote''.
Mayo curated ''Rights for Women'' at the
World Financial Center in 1998 and ''The Pleasure of Your Company'' at the Museum of Old Salem in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...
. She curated an exhibition about women entrepreneurs, called ''Enterprising Women'', in 2002 for the
Schlesinger Library
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, ...
.
Smithsonian Institution
In the 1970s, Mayo was Political History Division Assistant Curator at the
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...
.
She eventually transitioned into the position of curator emerita, managing major exhibitions about political history, women's history and voting rights.
![Lady Bird Johnson visits First Ladies Hall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Lady_Bird_Johnson_visits_First_Ladies_Hall.jpg)
As curator emerita, she curated the major exhibit, ''From Parlor to Politics: Women and Reform in America, 1890-1925'' in 1990 and in 1992 she curated the museum's major exhibition about the
first ladies of the United States
The first lady of the United States is the hostess of the White House. The position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, but, on occasion, the title has been applied to women who were not presidents' wives, s ...
: ''First Ladies exhibition, First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image''.
The exhibition toured nationally from 2004-2007.
Author
Mayo's book ''The Smithsonian Book of the First Ladies'' was published in 1996.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
wrote the foreword.
Recognition
In March 2015, the
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
Board of Supervisors named her an honoree for her work at the Smithsonian. In 2020, she was named an honoree by the
National Women's History Alliance.
Selected works
*''The Smithsonian Book of the First Ladies''. New York: Henry Holt & Company (1996).
*"Teaching the First Ladies Using Material Culture" by Edith P. Mayo, ''OAH Magazine of History'', vol. 15, no. 3, 2001, pp. 22–25. JSTOR
*''First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image'' by Edith Mayo and Lisa Kathleen Graddy, London: Scala Publishers (2004)
References
Further reading
*''First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women'' by Susan Swain, New York City: PublicAffairs (2015) pp 77–80. .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo, Edith
1940 births
Living people
American women historians
American women curators
American curators
Smithsonian Institution people
Political historians
George Washington University faculty
George Washington University alumni
Organization of American Historians