As the 19th Amendment turns 100, three exhibitions in Washington explore the contentious — and unfinished — struggle for voting rights.

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In the summer of 1919, shortly after Congress passed the 19th Amendment, the Smithsonian acquired a few relics from the nearly century-long struggle for women’s suffrage.

Susan B. Anthony’s red silk shawl and the table on which Elizabeth Cady Stanton had drafted the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 were among the donated items. A year later, after the amendment was ratified by the states and became part of the Constitution, theywere put on view along with some documents, teacups, brooches and other objects in a modest display bearing the offhand title “An Important Epoch in American History.”

Today, there’s a bit more excitement. The yearlong centennial of the 19th Amendment is being commemorated with exhibitions, parades, conferences and new historical markers across the country, many timed to various states’ ratifications of the amendment. And in Washington, three major exhibitions are now open at the National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Together, these shows — all curated by women — make up one of the richest explorations of women’s history yet assembled in the capital, or anywhere else. But they also offer a lesson in the messiness, complexities and compromises involved in any movement for social change — and the fraught politics of historical memory itself.

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Exhibits in Washington, DC

• Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence
  National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute
  March 29, 2019 – January 5, 2020
  
  
• Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote
  Library of Congress
  June 4, 2019–September 2020

• Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote
  National Archives Museum
  May 10, 2019 – January 3, 2021

Dear Wild West Women,
In 1911, the West led the way to winning the vote. Today thousands of women are joining together to celebrate the 19th Amendment Centennial. 1920 ~ 2020.

A small group of amazing persistent women has set their Centennial goal on a “Votes for Women” float in the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 2020. They have invited each of us will be a part of this historic event.

The entire country will see this glorious, inclusive float marking the beginning of 2020 ~ the year of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial. The float theme is Years of Hope, Years of Courage . It is going to be 60 feet long and 30 feet high. The nation will a see a spectacular portrayal of our long history to earn the right to vote featuring central women in the campaign.

Floats and parades were a major tool in bringing attention to women’s right to vote. Cities both large and small learned about suffrage as women in automobiles, on floats and in parades spread their message across the country. The 2020 float and presence in the Tournament of Roses Parade will be a remarkable continuation of our legacy illuminating the importance of the VOTE.

Your donation will make you part of this float and parade.
Hundreds of women have begun sending $25 – $100.

It truly is a WOMEN’S FLOAT!

Join the excitement today.

CLICK TO MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION.

Remember to always celebrate suffrage with your VOTE,
Martha.

• Link to the Full Story at The Atlantic.com

One hundred years ago this week, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would guarantee women the right to vote, and sent it on to the states for ratification (which took another 14 months). The battle for women’s suffrage in the United States had been taking place for years—in Congress, in the streets, and at home—with supporters organizing demonstrations, petitions, parades, and speeches, and coordinating with fellow activists in England, France, and other countries. Gathered below, images of some of the brave women who worked tirelessly for years to demand equal rights, and finally succeeded by having them written into law.

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With the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment approaching, a look back at the surprising history of giving women the vote

• Link to the Full Story at SmithsonianMag.com

If you look at black-and-white photographs of suffragists, it’s tempting to see the women as quaint: spectacles and undyed hair buns, heavy coats and long dresses, ankle boots and feathered hats. In fact, they were fierce—braving ridicule, arrest, imprisonment and treatment that came close to torture. Persistence was required not only in the years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, in 1920, but also in the decades that followed. “It’s not as though women fought for and won the battle, and went out and had the show of voting participation that we see today,” says Debbie Walsh, director of the nonpartisan Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “It was a slow, steady process. That kind of civic engagement is learned.”

This forgotten endurance will be overlooked no more, thanks to “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence,” a major new exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery through January 5, 2020, that features more than 120 artifacts, including the images and objects on these pages. “I wanted to make sure we honored the biographies of these women,” says Kate Lemay, a Portrait Gallery historian and the curator of the exhibit, which portrays the suffragists as activists, but also as students, wives and mothers. “I wanted to recognize the richness of their lives,” Lemay says. “I think that will resonate with women and men today.” The exhibit is part of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, intended to be the nation’s most comprehensive effort to compile and share the story of women in this country.

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• Link to the Full Story at NPS