About
The Historical Dinner Project is an initiative created by Stockholms Kvinnohistoriska (Stockholm Museum of Women’s History) that aims to inspire and spread knowledge about women’s lives in history.
The project consists of dinners where a company of guests are invited to share a personal story about a historical woman they would like the world to know about. The story can be about almost anything! It can be about a woman’s achievements; it can be about her struggles or crimes – about a hero, victim or even a perpetrator.
Through listening and sharing we create new knowledge about our past, as well as a deeper understanding of the present. The personal dinner presentations all become part of a larger narrative. They are documented and archived by Stockholm Museum of Women's History and are in turn added to our collective memory and collection of history.
Women are, and have always been 50% of the population. But according to award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster Dr Bettany Hughes, the inconvenient truth is that women only occupy around 0.5% of recorded history.
History is something used and created everyday. The selection of who and what is important enough to be remembered by many is an active choice by people like writers, historians and storytellers. The lack of knowledge of women in history is a global problem for democracy – and something we all can be a part of changing – together.
“Ambition – to unabashedly express a desire for power, recognition and fame was taboo for a woman in the 17th century and remains taboo now.”
SIRI HUSTVEDT | Told us about Margaret Cavendish, English aristocrat, philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction-writer, and playwright at Dinner #1
Who is behind this?
The project was initiated by Stockholms Kvinnohistoriska (Stockholm Museum of Women’s History), an innovative and collaborative museum without its own permanent building; four walls simply cannot fit the account of half of humanity! Instead the museum takes place where people are, i.e all over, to spread knowledge about women’s lives in history.
The museum aims to collect and archive the Historical Dinner Project for the future. Dinner #1, was organised in Gothenburg in collaboration the Göteborg Book Fair: arguably the largest cultural event in Scandinavia. The book fair is a manifestation of art and culture – a four-day literary festival dedicated to celebrate the power of stories.
“So many women that history has tried to muzzle, and we are doing the very opposite.”
HELEN PANKHURST | Told us about Sylvia Pankhurst, English campaigner for the suffragette movement and her grandmother at Dinner #1
About Dinner #1
The first historical dinner party – Dinner #1 was arranged by the Stockholm Museum of Women’s History together with the Göteborg Book Fair. The project was established in connection to the 2019 edition of the book fair, on the theme Gender Equality. 39 participants from 17 countries, invited by the Göteborg Book Fair: professional storytellers like Jamaica Kincaid, Siri Husvedt, Han Kang, Meg Wolitzer, Tayari Jones, to name a few, were seated around the dinner table. Anne Holt, Norwegian author, lawyer and former Minister of Justice described the dinner as ”One of the biggest and strongest experiences of my long life.”
For Dinner #1 a triangular dinner table setting was used, inspired by the artist Judy Chicago and her famous installation “The Dinner Party” (1979). Her artwork is a symbolic history of women in civilisation; with 39 elaborate place settings arranged along a three-cornered table for 39 fictional and historical famous women. At Dinner #1 living, inspirational women sat there instead, each with their own short story about a woman they want everyone to know about. You enter with one story – you leave with 39. Together we lifted these women by using the magic of sharing. This is how we create and simultaneously change history.
“Mary Seacole – a black woman who was the equal of Florence Nightingale. But you wouldn’t know it because she wasn’t admitted even among white women as such.”
JAMAICA KINCAID | Told us about Mary Seacole, a Jamaican-born British nurse and her mother Annie Richardson Drew.
Stockholm Museum of Women’s History
Stockholms Kvinnohistoriska (Stockholm Museum of Women’s History) is a new and groundbreaking museum dedicated to women’s history. Together with our member organisations, we work to have women’s history and stories explored, acquired, preserved, made accessible, and visible to the public.
We do innovative museum work – without a permanent building. Rather than having a fixed location, we appear all over the city through tours, exhibitions, talks and other activities. We aim to be present in our everyday life where the history of women actually took place, working to make it a part of our common knowledge.
Cooperation and participation is the bedrock of our work. The museum is a non-profit founded by a multitude of organisations in Stockholm: museums, archives, academic and cultural institutions and even nightclubs have all come together in order to establish Stockholm Museum of Women's History. The member organisations offer fantastic historical expertise, unique collections, facilities and spaces, and broad experiences in public events.
Through our network Kvinnohistoriska Sällskapet (the Association for Women’s History) we invite individuals from the public to support the museum and contribute in shaping it.
With history as the common thread we will work to promote new collaborations, exchange of knowledge and first class cultural experiences for residents and visitors in Stockholm.
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“Gro Harlem Brundtland – the feminist – was the terrorists main target. He didn’t get her. I pay tribute to her political legacy.”
ANNE HOLT | Told us about Gro Harlem Brundtland, a Norwegian politician at Dinner #1
Guests and their stories
Dinner #1
Tayari Jones
American Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
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Meg Wolitzer
Vera Rubin, American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates.
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Samar Yazbek
Luobna Alkanawati, the Turkey country manager for Women Now for Development, a Syrian organization that provides support to women in Syria and Lebanon.
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Saga Becker
Solveig Becker, her grandmother.
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Kate Davies
Maureen Colquhoun, British economist and a former Labour Party politician.
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Dörte Hansen
Farmer Anneline ”Stine” Petersen.
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Ailbhe Smyth
Mna na hEireann – The Ordinary Women of Ireland.
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Gemma Hartley
Reema Zaman, an award-winning author, speaker, and actress who was born in Bangladesh, raised in Hawaii and Thailand, and presently lives in Oregon.
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Merete Pryds Helle
Martha Johansen, her grandmother.
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Rachel Kushner
Juana Maria, a Nicoleño woman who survived alone on a remote island off the coast of California for 18 years.
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Annika Norlin
Hildegard of Bingen, German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath.
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Tatiana Salem Levy
Carolina Maria de Jesus, Brazilian writer.
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Karolina Ramqvist
Marguerite de Navarre, the princess of France, Queen of Navarre, and Duchess of Alençon and Berry.
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Sanna Tahvanainen
Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer.
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Tove Folkesson
Moa Martinsson, one of Sweden's most noted authors of proletarian literature.
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Nadya Okamoto
Wendy Davis, former Texas state senator.
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Lisbeth Larsson
Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and teacher
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Joumana Haddad
Lilith, a figure in Jewish mythology.
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Kim Windvogel
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist and politician
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Åsa Moberg
Florence Nightingale, English social reformer and statistician and the founder of modern nursing.
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Anna Charlotta Gunnarson
Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and actress Agnetha Fältskog.
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Susanna Alakoski
Hilda Vainonpää, her grandmother, one of the hundred thousands unknown and unnamned textile factory workers, still working in nightshifts all over the world.
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Anne Holt
Gro Harlem Brundtland, a Norwegian politician.
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Tessa Hadley
Jane Austen, an English novelist
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Alexandra Pascalidou
Sofia Damianidou, her grandmother
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Olivia Bergdahl
Violette Morris, a French athlete, feminist – and collaborator of the Gestapo.
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Han Kang
Maeng-choon Hyun from Jeju.
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Lina Thomsgård
Barumskvinnan, the fisherman from Barum – mother of several children
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Merete Mazzarella
Her grandmother – and also Alma Söderhjelm, Swedish-speaking Finnish historian and the first female professor in Finland.
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Jamaica Kincaid
Annie Richardson Drew, her mother – and also Mary Seacole, a Jamaican-born British nurse.
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Katarina Wennstam
Karolina Widerström, Swedish doctor and gynecologist and the first female physician with a university education in Sweden.
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Helen Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst, English campaigner for the suffragette movement.
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Anne Atambo
Barbara Bangura, women's rights activist from Sierra Leone.
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Leonora Christina Skov
Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, Danish noblewoman and memoir writer.
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Frida Edman
Jacqueline Woodson, American writer of books for children and adolescents.
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Siri Hustvedt
Margaret Cavendish, English aristocrat, philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction-writer, and playwright during the 17th century.
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Amanda Svensson
Margaret Mee, British botanical artist who specialised in plants from the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest.
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Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Melkorka, and Irish princess mentioned in Icelandic sagas, where she is captured and enslaved by vikings.
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(Vigdis Hjort - absent at dinner)
Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer, often referred to as the first Norwegian feminist.
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Background
Lina Thomsgård, cofounder of Stockholms Kvinnohistoriska (Stockholm Museum of Women’s History), published a history book in 2017. En annan historia (Another History) presented texts by 51 of the best writers in Sweden, who each chose one historical woman to write about. At the release party in her home, each of the writers gave a three minute speech about their chosen woman. The release party was transformed into an amazing history lesson and something for the participating guests to talk about for months. It also sparked the idea to create something bigger – the Historical Dinner Project.