Update: The exhibit is now open as of October 1st, 2021. Original story below.
The New-York Historical Society will host a sprawling exhibit on the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died at the age of 87 on September 18th, starting next year.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which first debuted in L.A. in 2018, will be on view at the museum from October 1st, 2021 to January 23rd, 2022. The exhibit includes archival photographs and documents, historical artifacts, contemporary art, media stations, and gallery interactives spanning RBG’s life and varied roles.
Highlights include a robe and jabot from RBG’s Supreme Court wardrobe; the official portraits of RBG and Sandra Day O’Connor 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.
There are personal items including home movies of RBG and her husband Marty Ginsburg on their honeymoon and during the early years of their marriage; RBG's various yearbooks; and a paper she wrote as an eighth grader "exploring the relationship between the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the recently formed United Nations Charter."
The exhibit will also include 3D "re-imaginations" of significant places from throughout her life, including her childhood home in Midwood, Brooklyn, the kitchen in her home with Marty, and the Supreme Court bench and desk in her chambers.
“We were deeply saddened by the recent passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a native New Yorker whose impact on the lives of contemporary Americans has been extraordinary,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. “Justice Ginsburg fought hard to achieve justice and equality for all, inspiring us with her courage and tenacity in upholding our fundamental American ideals. A special friend to New-York Historical, in 2018 she presided over a naturalization ceremony in our auditorium, one of many that we are honored to host annually. The exhibition we had planned as a celebration of Justice Ginsburg’s life will now be our memorial tribute to her achievements and legacy.”
Since Ginsburg's death two weeks ago, there have been an outpouring of tributes from across the city. She was remembered as a "total rock star" by NYC's legal community and as a "shining light" to people who live in her old Brooklyn neighborhood.
Mayor Bill de Blasio approved the renaming of the Brooklyn Municipal Building after Ginsburg, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that she will be memorialized with a statue in Brooklyn (possibly in Brooklyn Bridge Park), and locals turned the 50th Street C/E train station in Manhattan into a makeshift tribute.