Completed in 1928, at the height of the Roaring Twenties, the Barbizon Hotel was designed as a luxurious safe haven for the “Modern Woman” hoping for a career in the arts. Over time, it became the place to stay for any ambitious young woman hoping for fame and fortune. In her new book The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free, professor of international, gender, and media studies at Vassar College, Paulina Bren “unpacks” the luggage of several generations of women, mostly young and new to the city, who found a home in the hotel that became a legend.
After Paulina's presentation, she will be joined in conversation with Andrea Barnet, writer and author of Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World, whose 2019 talk at the Museum can be viewed here.
Paulina Bren is an award-winning historian and a professor at Vassar College. She received a BA from Wesleyan University, an MA in international studies from the University of Washington, and a PhD in history from New York University. She currently lives in the Bronx with her husband and daughter.
The video begins with an introduction by Museum Director Carol Willis, followed by an illustrated talk by Paulina Bren and dialogue between Bren and Andrea Barnet.