An exhibition of photographs now on view at Mystic Seaport, “On Land and On Sea: A Century of Women in the Rosenfeld Collection,” is based on a book of the same title by University of Delaware faculty member Margaret L. Andersen.

The exhibition, which opened during Women’s History Month in March, will continue through September at the maritime museum in Connecticut. It showcases 70 photos taken by the Rosenfeld family of professional photographers, some depicting lives of privilege and leisure and others of working-class women from the turn of the last century through the 1950s.

“The Rosenfelds are best known for their stunning images of large racing yachts under sail, but they also captured images of people and everyday events as part of their commercial photography work,” said Elysa Engelman, director of exhibits at Mystic Seaport.

“The issues represented in these photographs still resonate to the contemporary viewer, and they are depicted with the Rosenfelds’ usual attention to detail and striking composition.”

The show includes images of aviators and athletes, suffragettes, nurses and mothers caring for their children. They are organized according to the following seven themes that show aspects of women’s lives in the 20th century:

Learning the Ropes; The Daily Grind: Women and Work; Lifelines: Women as Care Workers; Spirit, Sports, and Spectators; Displaying Womanhood; In the Yard; and Women at the Wheel.

Andersen, who is the Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Sociology, is the daughter-in-law of photographer Stanley Rosenfeld. Her book, On Land and On Sea, was published by Mystic Seaport in 2007.

The book features the lives of women in the yachting world, but it also documents the lives of women as workers, caregivers and sportswomen over the course of the 20th century. It is illustrated with photographs from the Rosenfeld Collection, accompanied by interpretive essays.

Andersen joined the UD faculty as an instructor in 1974 and in 1976 was named an assistant professor of sociology. Her work focuses on race and ethnic relations, sociology of sex and gender in women’s studies, and sociological theory.

Her newest book, to be published in June, is Race in Society: The Enduring American Dilemma.  

She is the author of several other books, including Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender; Race, Class, and Gender (with Patricia Hill Collins); Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society (with Howard F. Taylor); Sociology: The Essentials (with Howard F. Taylor); Understanding Society: Readings in Sociology (with Kim A. Logio); Social Problems (with Frank R. Scarpitti and Laura L. O'Toole); and Living Art: The Life of Paul R. Jones, African American Art Collector (with Neil F. Thomas). 

The Rosenfeld Collection

The collection was acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1984 and, with nearly a million pieces, is one of the largest archives of maritime photographs in the United States.

The collection is built on the inventory of the Morris Rosenfeld and Sons photography business, which operated in New York City from 1910 until the late 1970s. The Rosenfelds were famous as yachting photographers, in particular for their coverage of the America’s Cup races, but they also photographed non-nautical subjects.

Andersen’s husband, Richard M. Rosenfeld, who is Morris Rosenfeld’s grandson and Stanley Rosenfeld’s son, is a UD alumnus who earned his degree in mathematical sciences in 1966.