Mother and Daughter at Penn Station, NYC
Ruth Orkin
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
For her New York–based photojournalist work, photographer Ruth Orkin captured a group of officers-in-training for the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Created at the outset of World War II as an auxiliary branch of the U.S. Army, the WAC was converted to active duty status in 1943. Serving as switchboard operators, mechanics, bakers, tailors, clerks, stenographers, and drivers, the members, called WACs, became the first women other than nurses to serve in the army.
In an earlier series, Orkin photographed train passengers waiting outside of Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station. The image of a Black mother and child sitting on their luggage reflects the little-discussed history of segregated transportation in the northern United States. Through the 1940s, Penn Station officials assigned Black travelers seats in Jim Crow cars on southbound trains; in response, New Yorkers organized and the NAACP brought several successful lawsuits against complicit railroad companies.
In an earlier series, Orkin photographed train passengers waiting outside of Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station. The image of a Black mother and child sitting on their luggage reflects the little-discussed history of segregated transportation in the northern United States. Through the 1940s, Penn Station officials assigned Black travelers seats in Jim Crow cars on southbound trains; in response, New Yorkers organized and the NAACP brought several successful lawsuits against complicit railroad companies.
MEDIUM
Gelatin silver photograph
DATES
1948
DIMENSIONS
sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 in. (35.4 × 27.9 cm)
image: 13 3/4 × 9 3/16 in. (34.9 × 23.3 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2011.22.3
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mary Engel
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Ruth Orkin (American, 1921–1985). Mother and Daughter at Penn Station, NYC, 1948. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 in. (35.4 × 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mary Engel, 2011.22.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2011.22.3_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 2011.22.3_PS9.jpg., 2018
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Estate of Ruth Orkin
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here.
The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act.
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
![Untitled (Guanaroca [First Woman])](https://d1lfxha3ugu3d4.cloudfront.net/images/opencollection/objects/size2_sq/2007.15_PS9.jpg)
