15686. Arts & Crafts Art Nouveau “Katie Mulcahey” Hammered Copper & Brass Tray c1910. In January 1908, NYC enacted a law against woman smoking. Katie Mulcahey tested that law and was promptly arrested. “I have never heard of this new law and I don’t want to hear about it. No man shall dictate me,” she reportedly told the judge. Several days later, the mayor of New York struck down the law. The right for women to smoke in public wasn’t written into law. But after the Mulcahey debacle, New York’s chief legal officer declared that women could smoke at will in public. It set a precedent for laws to be created to allow women the same public activities as men. A little over a decade later women were granted the right to vote. Unsigned. Excellent new patina. 10.75″d SOLD
