"Retouching an Old Masterpiece"

This illustration, titled "1776—Retouching an Old Masterpiece—1915," appeared on the cover of "Life" magazine in 1915. The woman depicted in the painting makes an edit to the Declaration of Independence, while the ghost of a Founding Father watches over her shoulder. For decades, women’s rights advocates sought to rewrite the Declaration to clarify that “all men and women are created equal.”