New York is getting ready to celebrate a centennial with plenty of sparkle. On November 20, The New York Historical opens Marilyn Monroe Centennial: Photographs by Lawrence Schiller, an exhibition marking 100 years since the star’s birth in 1926 – and telling a refreshingly empowering story: how Monroe learned to direct her own image.
On view in the Joyce B. Cowin Women’s History Gallery through March 28, 2027, the show presents 36 photographs by photojournalist Lawrence Schiller, taken on the sets of Let’s Make Love in 1960 and Monroe’s final, unfinished film, Something’s Got to Give, in 1962. Schiller arrived as a young photographer and found not just a subject but a savvy collaborator who showed him exactly how she wanted to be captured.
Visitors will also see a contact sheet marked up with Monroe’s own final approval, the famous Niagara publicity photo that inspired Andy Warhol, the invitation to the 1962 Madison Square Garden evening where she sang Happy Birthday to President Kennedy, and treasures from the museum’s Life magazine and Time Inc. archives.
The exhibition also honors her New York chapter: arriving in 1954 to study acting and claim creative control, Monroe became one of the first women in Hollywood to found her own production company. A joyful, eye-opening portrait of a star who was always more in charge than the headlines suggested.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
