Listen with their free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Next, a visit to the Smithsonians National portrait gallery. A historian gives American History tba guided tour of an exhibit marking the centennial of the 19th amendment. Using images of early suffrage leaders, she shows how the movement intersected with the abolitionist and temperance movements. This is the first of a twopart series. Kate welcome to the National Portrait gallery at the smithsonian institution. Im the curator of votes for women. For this exhibition i worked 3. 5 years researching, finding all the objects. In the exhibition, we have about 124 objects, 63 portraits. Rating the exhibition, hoping to commemorate the 19th amendment and tell the history of the 19th amendment and how women lobbied to get this amendment passed and ratified. But also ask questions about it. And ask, what does it do . What does it amount to . Voting 1965 and the rights act was considered a part two of the voting amendment. Follow me, i will take you through it show you some of the objects that tell this history. Lets go. We are in the first gallery of the exhibition. I mentioned that we have portraits that drive the narrative. But i also wanted to include pieces of art, like the one we are looking at. Its by a female artist. She was active in the 1860s. I wanted to include this painting because it portrays young children, these four kids, one is a baby. And the mother. Then you have a servant or helper cleaning the dishes. What i like about this painting is it is from 1866 and it depicts the civil war. Vicksburg. Battle of it is kind of looking back. Spencer decided to portray this moment in time by looking at the lives of women. And the women are very serious. But the children are very much engaged in the celebration, they dont understand how severe and difficult that battle was. Vicksburg, during the battle, men on both sides starved, because the city was surrounded and embargoed. Why am i talking about the civil war in a suffrage exhibition . That is a good question. What i wanted to do was demonstrate the divide between the north and at the south, as well as between the races, afrin i africanamerican and white. This plays a big part in the Suffrage Movement, especially when the 14th amendment was passed and ratified in 1869. It included the word male. This is the first time in the history of the constitution that gender was specified and it , delivered a severe blow to the Suffrage Movement, where women were trying to advocate for their right to vote, but they were not even considered citizens, which is what the 14th amendment does, it granted citizenship to anybody born in the United States. When the 15th amendment enfranchised american citizens, it only enfranchised half the population. This is a huge divide. The Suffrage Movement disagreed on how to handle it. Thats why they split between each other. Susan b anthony and Elizabeth Stanton wanted to advocate for suffrage by excluding black women, whereas lucy was trying to advocate for universal suffrage. Africanamericans were suffragists. If you come with me, we will talk about one of the major ,fricanamerican suffragists miss harper, who famously spoke. What she said was all bound up together. To was trying to explain people that she is also an africanamerican, and a woman, combined, bound up together and intersectional. Black women really couldnt just sit around and let people take away their rights and not advocate for them. So they became active in Church Groups and and they really worked on learning how to speak in public, understanding their rights, understanding how to get those rights by their local communities, by being involved in those local community Church Groups. And that is a very interesting topic that not a lot of people have gone into or understand as much. So, people do understand the Suffrage Movement was divided, but they dont understand that remained aricans very active. And so this exhibition endeavors to make sure that we include africanamericans and other stories, like sarah parker, whose portrait is on the far wall. She was an activist in Antislavery Society of massachusetts. And she took her activism abroad. This is another interesting story of how american suffragists were not only vocus focused on the United States, but also active elsewhere in europe. We are going to talk about seneca falls and what is being referred to as the myth of seneca falls. This is a portrait of susan b. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton from 1870. Together, Susan B Anthony is pointing to a book, and it they are very dignified. This is what would be like a publicity shot today. They were using this portrait to represent them to a wider audience. They didnt even meet until 1851. And seneca falls, as most of us recall from our history books in high school, was a gathering, the First National convention in 1848, in new york, seneca falls. Elizabeth cady stanton and others penned the declaration of sentiments, which is the beginning document, one of the first documents that women were advocating for the vote. Exhibition this explains, by going back to 1832, is that women were getting together and talking and advocating for their rights, for their Citizenship Rights well before 1848. Suffrage just didnt appear out of thin air. It actually has a long history that others argue starts well before 1852, so this is a great intellectual debate i encourage you to look into. Us up to 1869 and now we are going to move into the next gallery, which starts in 1870. We are in the second gallery and i wanted to make sure to include representation of the womens christian Temperance Union. Upsets get into a lot helps us get into a lot of issues that american women were facing. Temperance was a Large Organization that had 100,000 women across the United States involved. They would gather and meet in what was called chapters. The Temperance Union fully endorsed there is a woman on the horse. At the top, what is great about those active and energetic print is that there is a woman on a horse, she is a doing of art figure. Joan of arc figure. And she is leaping over these well marked barrels of alcohol. Are all ofher her compatriots. There are women with hatchets, and they are part of the temperance league. And in the name of god and humanity, that is with the banner one of them is carrying. The battle was against alcohol. When women were married to alcoholics, they became a vulnerable population. They were organizing amongst each other in ways that help them not only get support, but helped them to understand their rights and what they could do to advocate for their rights. On the bottom you see the prize. Womens temperance at the top. I wanted to include this little medal because i was curious to know how women were teaching themselves how to speak in public. You think of like toastmasters of today. That is a good comparison to what they were doing in the Temperance Union, because they were awarding prizes to women who were speaking and having a contest in order to award them. And of course, they were talking about christianity. That is an interesting object i was able to find. This isreason why important for women to know how to speak in public was in part because the suffrage cause, the word about it was being spread through speeches. They were going on the circuit, speaking in auditoriums that the time were referred to as lyceums. They were being paid a lot of money. Dickinson earned 20,000 annually in 1873. That was more money than mark twain. It is an interesting comparison, because we remember his name today, even though dickinson was more famous than mark twain at the time. Next, we will talk about some of the scandals that the suffragists got involved in. Victoria was well ahead of her time. She started her own business as a wealthy banker. Wall street banker. She advocated for free love, which means sex outside of marriage, which was definitely outside of the norm for women. This was the she also ran for 1870s. President on a word party ticket. She was the first woman to do so. Right here we have a really nice portrait of her attempting to vote, asserting her right to vote, as she would see it. She voted when you werent supposed to vote. , as a woman. Here she is pointing her finger. She just dropped her vote into the ballot box. And lots of women at this time were doing what would be referred to as illegal voting. Because it was explicitly illegal for women to vote. Holdf so victoria would one of thousands across the country who sought to change the system by going out, voting, getting arrested, not paying fines, and serving a sentence in jail, so that then they could appeal through the court system. And they tried to change the laws that way. And it wasiled, another severe blow dealt to the Suffrage Movement in 1873 when the Supreme Court ruled against a woman named virginia miner who , tried to vote and got up to court system, but then the Supreme Court found that women should not vote legally in the United States. So we have been discussing how victoria woodhall asserted her right to vote by placing a ballot in the ballot box. We have a different type of ballot box. This one is made of metal. Where as the one in the portrait was most likely made out of wood. What i like about this ballot box is it explicitly says, s. Mens ballot b very much in your face that women were voting separately. Could may be before municipal suffrage. Or in some states, about 15 were allowed to vote in the president ial election. So those boxes from elwood, indiana which is one of those , states that allowed women before 1920 to vote in the president ial elections. It was made by a company out of st. Louis and they made these , boxes between 1860 and 1920. And i think it is a really interesting piece of culture that eliminates illuminates what womens rights were like and what it looked like, what it felt like. So, we are looking at a caricature of victoria woodhall in this exemplifies some of 1872. The struggles women were going through at the time. As you can see, this is a caricature. Victoria woodhall was known for wearing what is known as victory rolls on the top of her head. But the cartoonist has turned them into devil horns. She has become a demon. She is walking away from a woman who is looking over her shoulder, maybe a little undecided that she made her decision, she is going up this mountain. You can tell there are three children she is carrying as well as the alcoholic husband strapped to her back. This exemplifies the choices that women had. Either you throw in your stock with somebody like victoria woodhall, who is advocating for free love at the time, and that is a very soft term for sex outside of marriage. She was advocating that women should have sex outside of marriage and why get married . , the illthis burden husband and children without any support . Victoria woodhall was trying to promote choices women had. But of course at the time women , were definitely not supposed to be having sex and definitely they were not supposed to be enjoying it. This is very much a taboo subject. And thomas captured that in his caricature of victoria woodhall. We are looking at a portrait of velda lockwood. She was the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Cherokeerguing for rights. She became an Expert Witness for native americans in subsequent trials. What i like is how dignified she looks. Up ins her hair bound this beautiful cloth. She had her collar on, and it represents her as this respectable woman, because she was a suffragist and they were constantly being accused of being outside the bounds of femininity. And so, she was actually the first woman to campaign for a presidency. And i mentioned victoria woodhall, who was the first one who would name herself as candidate for presidency, but she couldnt campaign because she was serving a jail sentence. Yet she had founded what was called the equal rights party. This was like a Democrat Party and the republican party, but a third party. So they were running on a third party ticket. So it was thanks to victoria woodhall that she was able to run. Whats a good example of women could do. She was a lawyer, she was advocating for rights to the Supreme Court, and she was also running for president. Over here we have a lovely portrait of Abigail Scott was an active in who was active in trying to persuade male legislators to change the laws of these western states. She founded the new northwest, which was a newspaper in 1871, that advocated for womens rights. A lot of people think suffrage was only based in the northeast. In fact, it was very active across the United States. There were mormon women advocating in utah. And in wyoming, that was the first date to afford suffrage for women. 1870. Tah later in so there was a nationwide approach to this reform movement. It was probably one of the longest reform movements in the United States in American History, and one of the most widespread. We are in the third gallery now. This is entitled, the new woman. It begins in 1892 and goes all the way up to 1912. The new woman was educated, on her bicycle, not bound in her home. She was physically active. And this puzzled a lot of people, as you can see in this depiction of the farmer his wife , and possibly his daughter. The new woman is wearing what looks like bloomers, pants, she is asking for a glass of water. They of course oblige, but as she is drinking, they are thinking, what is this person . Is she a woman, what is she doing, why is she outside of the home . You can see a lot of the confusion women had when they women started to advocate for the rights, but also act on freedom to move around in society and to go to school and get educated. So the magazines were picking up on this. Leslies close owned by Mariam Leslie. She was married to frank leslie. But after he died, she became misses frank leslie. And in order to assume the authority it took to publish a magazine like this, you can see the use of the color. This is a woman and an open air. Arriage in a parade she is carrying a banner that says votes for women. It speaks to privilege behind the movement. A lot of wealthy white women were the ones that were actually out there advocating in parades like this. In part, because the parades excluded africanamericans. The job well doing of getting the word out. So Mariam Leslie changed her magazine to make sure it included illustrations like this. And if you study the magazine after she took over, you can see a clear trajectory into the area,st causes of the which is interesting. We are going to look at an example of antisuffrage. This is from new york had tried 1894. To change its state referendum to include womens right to vote. But it failed, despite having a petition of 600,000 signatures in support of changing the states legislation. So the referendum failed and this is exemplified what was happening in this era, where the had taken on this statebystate approach. There were no longer going for this amendment change that had been proposed in the 1870s. They were trying to do a fullcourt press statebystate. But it was not working well and it was very frustrating. Isaac and c. Here. You can see how can she vote when the voting booths are so narrow . It is depicting this woman as a fanciful person. If you cant figure out how to dress yourself, much less finish voting how could women even see themselves having a political voice . There is a lot of suffrage that accompanies the whole movement and test average of that accompanies the whole movement, and antisuffrage that accompanies the whole movement and in the exhibition i chose to highlight some of those examples , but really not focus on it too much. I was more interested in how africanamericans were really involved and what the strategies were in the movement. We are looking at two examples that speak to the history of colorado and womens voting rights. In colorado. I wanted to highlight colorado because it is the first state where suffragists were able to lobby and convince male the states to change constitution to make sure that the women could vote. If that makes sense. Because when wyoming was a territory they sort of grandfathered in the right to vote when it became a state. Women didnt have to lobby wyoming legislators to get the right to vote. It was already written into their constitution. The colorado example is pretty interesting. If you come in close, you can see the three party ticket. This would be what they voted with. Equal suffrage approved, or equal suffrage not approved. Once colorado women achieved the right to vote they elected female legislators. This is a portrait of three of the four female legislators from the era of 1893 through 1894 you. You have two democrats and one republican. In the back there are three portraits of africanamericans. We have cooper in the middle and mary church on the right. These are studio portraits and that were made of these women while they were students at overland college. Which was founded by abolitionists, and it was one of the first a liberal arts schools , if not the in the united first states to accept africanamerican students. What i love about these portraits is how young they are. And we know that they each went on to lead great lives as activists, as it that were advocating for Citizenship Rights. For all people of the United States, but specifically for africanamericans. Especially Anna Julia Cooper was a teacher at a color to school in washington, d. C. It is now Denver High School. And she is living the life of somebody who truly believes in giving liberal Arts Education to african americans. In 1893ary church, who founded the National Colored womens association. But she was also teaching at the same colored school, Denver High School in washington dc now. What i like about these two women was they were taking on the responsibility to assimilate africanamericans in the postcivil war suffrage era, in a way that would give them white collar access. , once they went to high school then they went to college, they became business people. They embodied that argument that these two men have been having. And ker t. Washington w. E. B. Dubois, about integrating africanamericans. Booker t. Washington advocated for technical training. And these women were walking the walk. They are less recognized than the men, but they were very much equal to both of these men in the ways in which they were strategizing how to make life better for africanamericans during a very difficult time. These three women are in this exhibition because they were not advocating for only suffrage, but they were advocating for other things outside the parameters of the focus. Africanamerican women were doing lots of activism, even though they were still excluded from the National Womens suffrage association, which of the two fractions we were talking about in the very beginning, when in 1870 they Suffrage Movement divided, they actually came back together in 1892. They then moved forward with great force and good strategy , still doing the statebystate strategy, but also excluding africanamericans the whole time. My point is these women were not just sitting around waiting on the sidelines. They were being very, very active within their own groups and in their own societies and local communities. We are standing in front of a banner that was carried by a woman in 1911. The writing is actually an the glorious light, written in 1871 by the british dean of canterbury. What i love about this banner is how it has a sense of spirituality which i think was so important to the suffragists eens, but it19t also has that sense of emerging onward and making progress forward. I wanted to make sure that we included a couple of banners in the National Womens party. They really speak to a lot of the thinking that is behind the movement. And also points to the activism. This actually concludes the first half of the exhibition. We have covered the movement up through 1912. And we have covered the first generation of suffragists and from this point on we are going to discover that suffragists still havent achieved the right to vote, women still dont have the right to vote in the United States, but we will see how they switch tactics and really achieve progress in a very comparatively small amount of time. Up through 1920. And and then talk about the changes, the ongoing battle through 1965 in the second part. This is the first of a twopart tour of the National Portrait gallerys exhibit marking the centennial of the 19th amendment. You can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. Announcer cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. And a part of the National Conversation through our daily washington journal programs, or to our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. This week, our guest is Shirley Bloomfield of ntca, the Rural Broadband association. She is the ceo. Our guest from Telecommunications Reports is paul harvey. Shirley, d know do you represent . I represent 850 communitybased broadband providers across the country. They are in 46 states. They are the companies that traditionally were the local phone companies and that had to evolve quickly to become the broadband providers, so they truly are the onest