From Heel to Toe Panel: Behind Walk this Way Exhibition at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

From high-buttoned leather boots to retro stilettos, the evolution of footwear has paralleled women’s social and political advancements throughout the last century. Although considered an integral part of our everyday lives, shoes are uniquely able to tell stories centered around women’s labor activism, the fight for suffrage, and the sexual revolution. Moderated by Museum President and CEO Mary Pat Higgins, Valerie Paley, Walk this Way exhibition curator, and Edward Maeder, author of the exhibition’s catalog and founding director of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, join us for a look behind the fabric.

This program is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s current special exhibition, Walk this Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes.

This event is free and tickets are available here: https://dhhrm.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0S6e00000h4GwkEAE

About Walk this Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes:
From silk boudoir shoes created for the 1867 Paris Exposition to leather spectator pumps signed by the 1941 New York Yankees, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum’s special exhibition, Walk this Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes, features more than 100 striking pairs of shoes. This exhibition presents footwear – spanning nearly 200 years – from the collection of iconic shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, and businesswoman and philanthropist Jane Gershon Weitzman.

An integral part of our everyday lives, shoes not only protect our feet, but tell stories centered around women’s labor activism, the fight for suffrage, and the sexual revolution. Production and consumption of footwear serve as pathways toward discovering the vital role women played in history. Women take center stage as this exhibition explores a variety of shoes, including those worn by suffragists as they marched through the streets, Jazz Age flappers as they danced the Charleston, and starlets who graced the silver screen in the postwar era. In exploring the process of shoemaking, the role of women in one of the first mass production industries, and their participation in the forming of organized labor, the exhibition presents the story of the shoe as it has never been told before.

This exhibition has been organized by the New-York Historical Society and will be on view at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum from February 9 through July 14, 2024.

The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum is grateful for the generous support of this special exhibition from supporting sponsor Neiman Marcus. Additional support is provided by the Bank of Texas, Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District, Joyce B. Cowin, Match Group, NorthPark Center, Toyota, Vaquero Private Wealth, and transportation sponsor NFI.