RBG Exhibit Will Open at New-York Historical Society in a Year

By Carol Tannenhauser

Going by pandemic time, a year isn’t so long to wait to see a museum exhibition, especially one memorializing the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be opening at the New-York Historical Society on October 1, 2021. A traveling show that debuted at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles in 2018, it had originally been planned as a celebration of Justice Ginsburg’s life, but now will become a memorial tribute to her development, achievements and legacy.

“Notorious RBG features archival photographs and documents, historical artifacts, contemporary art, media stations, and gallery interactives spanning RBG’s varied roles as student, wife to Martin “Marty” Ginsburg, mother, lawyer, judge, women’s rights pioneer, and internet phenomenon,” a release from the Museum said.

“Highlights include a robe and jabot from RBG’s Supreme Court wardrobe; the official portraits of RBG and Sandra Day O’Connor—the first two women to serve on the Supreme Court—on loan from the National Portrait Gallery; and listening stations where visitors can hear RBG’s delivery of oral arguments, majority opinions, and forceful dissents in landmark Supreme Court cases.

“The exhibition also displays 3D re-imaginations of key places in RBG’s life, such as her childhood Brooklyn apartment; the kitchen in RBG and Marty’s home, with some of Marty’s favorite recipes and cooking utensils; and the Supreme Court bench and the desk in her chambers.”

File this under good things to come. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will run from October 1, 2021 through January 23, 2022, at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at 77th Street. (212) 873-3400, nyhistory.org. You can follow the museum on social media at @nyhistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr.

And don’t forget, there’s a free outdoor show currently underway at the Historical Society, called, “Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine. On display through November 29, it emphasizes the hope and persistence that New York City demonstrated through the deadliest months of the pandemic in March and April.

Photographs courtesy of the New-York Historical Society.