Genius of the Ladies Magazine Illustration, 1792

Thackara & Vallance, Frontispiece and title page from "The Lady's magazine, and repository of entertaining knowledge" showing the "Genius of the Ladies magazine" presenting the figure of Liberty with a copy of Mary Wollstoncraft's "Vindication of the rights of women," 1792 via Library of Congress.

Thackara & Vallance, Frontispiece and title page from “The Lady’s magazine, and repository of entertaining knowledge” showing the “Genius of the Ladies magazine” presenting the figure of Liberty with a copy of Mary Wollstoncraft’s “Vindication of the rights of women,” 1792 via Library of Congress.

Despite the restrictions imposed on their American citizenship, white women worked to expand their rights to education in the new nation using literature and the arts. The first journal for women in the United States, The Lady’s Magazine, and repository of entertaining knowledge, introduced their initial volume with an engraving celebrating the transatlantic exchange between women’s rights advocates. In the engraving, English writer Mary Wollstonecraft presents her work, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” to Liberty who has the tools of the arts at her feet.