The dinner party is an extraordinary artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago in 1979. It functions as a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization. There are 39 amazingly done lace settings arranged along a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women. Each unique place setting includes a hand painted china plate, ceramic flatware and chalice, and a napkin with gold edges. 

One of the women was Sojourner Truth, and she was recognized as one of the first people to identify the similarities between the struggles of black salves and the struggles off a women. She was a powerful woman to fight for justice and equality for both African American and women in the U.S. Born into slavery, she was sold away from her family at the age of eleven. As a young teenager, she was forced to marry an older slave. She became dedicated to fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised. Truth never learned how to read or write, but with the help of a good friend of her, she managed to publish the landmark book Narrative of Sojourner Truth in 1851, which she talks about her life as slave and her transformation into an activist. Sojourner Truth at The Dinner Party, she was placed with a heritage in the African American history with the roots of the American history also. The edging of the runner is an African strip  weave technique, usually used by salves, combined with a piece working technique imported to the United States by European Women. Her plate shows three faces, one turned to the left, one facing straight ahead, and one turned to the right. The faces evoke African masks, share a single female body, suggested by the rounded breasts. The breast forms also reference a story in which a male member of the church congregation where Truth was speaking requested that her body be examined, not believing that a woman could be so powerful.

Second, there is Susan B. Anthony. Her work shows an amazing event of the women’s suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century. Before she was sixteen, she began to teach and in 1837. She began her career as an activist, working with both the abolitionist movement and the temperance movement. She organized a campaign to demand equal pay for female teachers. She never married or had any children, and that gave her the ability to travel and campaign. She was placed at The Dinner Party as “queen of the table” as Judy Chicago said. The three-dimensional form of her plate lifts up from the surface with great force in a vain effort to escape its confines. The back of the runner is modeled on a “crazy quilt” in which random pieces of fabric and embroidery are pieced together without a pattern, reminiscent of early American quilt. A satin band bordering the quilt reads, “Independence is Achieved by Unity” to commemorate collaboration among women. Custom-made pins are also fastened on the back of the runner with Anthony’s famous quote, “Failure is Impossible.”

Third there is Elizabeth Blackwell. She became the first woman to receive medial degree in the United States. She opened a field for other women while founding important medical institutions such as the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857, and the National Health Society in 1871. She began her professional career as a teacher to aid her family economically after her father’s death. At the time Blackwell decided on a medical career, there were no academically trained female physicians in the United States, making her acceptance to medical school unlikely. Some doctors Blackwell knew encouraged her to apply as a man, while others discouraged her altogether. She was rejected by almost all of nearly thirty schools to which she applied. She was accepted at Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York where she began her studies in 1847. After medical school Blackwell faced additional difficulties. The dean never wrote the recommendation letters he once promised her. She was refused jobs in numerous hospitals, she had difficulty finding patients who would be treated by a female doctor and consequently she had trouble establishing her own practice. She was placed at The Dinner Party for both her triumphs and her difficulties in the field of medicine. The plate is comprised of twisting, brightly colored forms that swirl toward a central black well, a visual pun on the doctor’s name. The plate’s bright palette is repeated through the rainbow colors of the runner, an abstract butterfly shape with scalloped edges resembling wings. The butterfly is a symbol repeatedly used in The Dinner Party to represent women’s freedom. The swirling motion depicted in the plate and runner also symbolizes the shift in thinking that allowed for more opportunities for women. The brilliant colors of the runner, however, are veiled in a thin gray chiffon, suggesting the difficulties Blackwell and other women pursuing careers in male dominated fields still had to endure.

Forth there is Emily Dickinson. She is considered one of the most famous poets in the history of American literature. She was outspoken and emotional in her lyrics. Her poems have had a remarkable influence in American literature. Among her poetic devices were dashes used as a  pause and capitalization for emphasis. Although she was a prolific writer, the world would not realize Dickinson’s true artistic talent until after her death. She published only seven poems in her lifetime. She was placed at The Dinner Party representing the striking contrast between her reclusive, introverted nature and the dynamic mind revealed through her poems. The center of the plate appears solid, and yet suffocated by surrounding gathered lace layers. These frilly layers were made using a process called lace draping, in which lace is saturated with porcelain slip and fired, converting it into porcelain. Lace draping was used to make porcelain dolls, and it suggests the restrictions the Victorian era imposed on Dickinson’s life and writing.

Fifth there is Ethel Smyth. She was a twentieth century British composer and a champion of women;s rights and female musicians. She studied Brahmsian musical composition and music theory at Leipzig Conservatory in Germany. She earned acclaim for her performance of Mass in D, which was enthusiastically received in London in 1893. Despite this success and her immense talent, she struggled to find musicians to perform her works because she was a woman. She ultimately gave up her music career due to her increased hearing loss. Smyth wrote about her life in several biographies, Impressions that Remained, 1919, and the memoir Streaks of Life, 1921, which captured her experiences in music, activism, and as an open lesbian, discussing her romantic involvements with famous women of her time, including Lady Pauline Trevelyan. She was placed at The Dinner Party for her role as both musician and activist for women’s rights. The plate is created as a grand piano complete with raised lid, painted keys and a stand with notations from Smyth’s famous opera The Boatswain’s Mate. The plate represents Smyth’s immense musical talents and its three-dimensionality can be interpreted as her attempt, with both her music and her open sexuality, to push the confines of a society unable to open fully to women. The unorthodox arrangement of the piano keys may also be a reference to Smyth’s unique life, unorthodox in early 20th century society.

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings