Historian kate color gives American History tv guided tour of an exhibit marking the centennial of the 19th advancement. Using images of early suffrage leaders, she shows how the movement intersected with the abolitionist and temperance movements. This is the first of a two part program. Hi everyone, 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. We have about 124 objects, 63 portraits. I was 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. Ask what does it do and what does it not to. And why 1965, the Voting Rights act, was considered a part two of the voting amendment. I will show you a few of the objects that tell this history. We are in the first gallery of the exhibition. I mentioned we have portraits that drive the narrative. I also wanted to include pieces of art, like the one we are looking at. Its by a female artist. Lilly spencer who 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 who is reading the new york times. Then you have a servant or helper cleaning the dishes. What i like about this painting from 1866 is it depicts the civil war. Its kind of looking back and spencer decided to portray this moment in time by looking at the lives of women. And the women are very serious. The children are very much engaged in the celebration, they dont understand how severe and difficult that 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 . What i wanted to do was demonstrate the divide between the north and the south. As well as the African American and the whites. This plays a big part in the Suffrage Movement, especially when the 14th amendment was passed and ratified. It included the word mail. 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 werent even considered citizens. The 14th amendment granted citizenship to anyone 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 bee anthony and lucy stanton wanted to advocate for suffered by including black womens, whereas lucy was trying to add the case for universal suffrage. One of the major africanamerican suffragists. She famously gave a speech at a suffrage convention. She was saying that we are all bound up together. She was trying to explain to people that she was also an africanamerican and a woman combined. It is bound up together, it is intersectional. Black women couldnt just sit around and let people take away their rights and not advocate for them. They became active in Church Groups and they were 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. Thats an interesting topic but not a lot of people have gone into or understand as much. People do understand the Suffrage Movement was divided, but they dont understand that africanamericans remained very active. This exhibition endeavors to include African American stories. Mike 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 in how american suffragists were not only focused in the United States, but they were 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. Anthony is pointing to a book, and they are very dignified. This would be a publicity shot today. They were using this portrait to represent them to a wider audience. They didnt even meet until 1851. Seneca falls, as most of us recall from our history books and high school, was a gathering, the First National convention in 1848. 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 a vote. What i hope this exhibition explains is by going back way 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 has a long history that others would argue start before 1842. That is a great intellectual debate i encourage you to look into. I brought 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. It helps us get into a lot of friend issues that american women were facing. Temperance was a Large Organization that had 100 thousand women across the United States involved. They would gather and meet in what was called chapters. In 1873, the Temperance Union there is a you see the womans holy war, what is great about this print is that there is a woman on the horse and she is like a joan of arc figure. She is leaping over this really well marked barrels of alcohol. You can see jim, whiskey, beer, rum. Behind her are her compatriots with women with moving axes and patches. In the name of god and humanity, that is the banner one of them is carrying. The battle was against alcohol. When women were married to alcoholics, they became a very vulnerable population. They were organizing amongst each other and ways that help them not only get support but understand their rights and what they can do to advocate for their rights. On the bottom you see the oratorical price, and i wanted to include this little metal because i was curious to know how women were teaching themselves how to speak in public. If you think of the toast masters today, that is a good analogy of what they are doing in the womens christian temperance because they were awarding prizes to women who are speaking and having little contests in order to award them for the good speeches. Of course they are talking about christiana the intemperance. That is an interesting thing i was able to find. The reason why it was important for women to know how to speak in public was in part because the suffrage cause an was being spread through speeches. A lot of women were going on what was called the lecture circuit. They were seeking auditoriums at the time, and they were being paid lots of money. Dickinson earned 20,000 dollars annually. And that was in 1873. She made more money than mark twain. I think that is an interesting comparison because whos named we remain we remember today . Even though Elizabeth Dyck next we are going to talk a little bit more about some of the scandals that suffragists got involved in. Victoria wood hall was well ahead of her time, she started her own businesses of all street banker with her sister. She advocated for free love which means sex outside of marriage. Which was definitely outside of the norm for women in 18 seventies. She also ran for president on the third party ticket. She was the first woman to ever do. So right here, we have a nice portrait of her attempting to vote. As she would see it. She voted as she was not supposed to vote. You can see she is asserting her right to vote and into the bell box. A lot of women at this time up which is what we call today illegal voting. Because it was illegal for women to vote. Victoria was one of thousands across the country who sought to change the system by going out, voting, getting arrested, not paying the fine, then serving a sentence in jail so that then they can appeal through the court system. And they try to change the laws that way. But they failed. And there is another severe blow that was dealt to the Suffrage Movement in 1873 when the Supreme Court ruled against a virginian minor who tried to vote and got up to the court system. But then the Supreme Court found women should not votes legally the United States. We were discussing how victoria woodhall asserted her right to vote. Here we have a different type of ballot box. This one is made of metal. What i like is it explicitly says womens ballot on it. Very much in your face that women were voting separately. And most likely not on equal terms in suffrage. Maybe they could vote for municipal suffrage or school suffrage. Or in some states before 1820, about 15 were allowed women to vote in president ial elections. This box is from hell would indiana which is one of the states that allowed women before 1922 vote in the president ial elections. It was made out of st. Louis and they made these boxes between 1860 in 1920. I think this is a peice of material culture that illimunates what womens rights were like and what it looked like, what it felt like. We are looking at a caricature of victoria woodhall in 1872. This exemplifies some of the struggles women were going through at the time. Victoria woodhall has been known for wearing what is known as victory rolls. But the cartoon turns 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 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 enjoy sex and have sex outside of marriage. And why get married there for . Why have this burden of the ill husband and all these children without any support . Victoria was trying to promote choices that women had. But of course at the time, when they were definitely not supposed to be having sex outside of marriage or enjoying it. This is very much a taboo subject. And thomas really captures that in his character chair of victoria would haul as the demon. We are looking at portrait of velda ann lockwood. She was arguing for cherokee mans rights. She became an Expert Witness for native americans in subsequent trials. What i like is how dignified she looks, she had her hair wound up in this beautiful cloth. She had her lace 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. She was actually the first woman to campaign for a presidency. I mentioned victoria woodhall, who is 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 equal rights party. This was like a Democrat Party and the republican party, but the third party ticket. The suffragists are running for president on what is called a third party ticket. It is thanks to victoria woodhall that lockwood is able to run. A good example of what women could do. She was a lawyer, she was advocating for rights in the Supreme Court and running for president. We have a lovely portrait of Abigail Scott dunaway, who was an oregon suffer just, she was active in trying to persuade male legislators to change the law of these western states. She was based in oregon, chief founded the new northwest newspaper in 1871, it advocated for womens rights. A lot of people think suffrage was only based in the northeast, but in fact it was very active across the United States. There were lots of mormon women advocating for suffrage in utah and wyoming famously became a first state to endorse suffrage for women in 1869. There is a nationwide approach to this reform. It is probably one of the longest reform movements in the united in American History. And also one of the most widespread. This is entitled, the new women. It goes from 1892 to 1912. The new woman was educated, she was on her bicycle, she was out and about, not in the home, 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 and her riding have it, she is wearing what looks like bloomers or pants, she has asked them for a glass of water, they oblige but as used drinking from the glass they are taking to themselves, what is this person . Issue woman . What is she doing . Why is she outside of the home . You can really kind of tell the confusion that a lot of americans had when women start to advocate for the rights. But also to enact their rights and their freedoms and move around in society. Go to school, get educated. Magazines were picking up on this. Leslies was owned by someone who had married frank leslie but she changed her name to become mrs. Frank leslie. In order to assume the authority that it took to publish a magazine like this. And so you can see the use of color. This is a woman rainy in open air carriage in a parade. Shes obviously carrying banners her. It speaks to some of the privilege behind the movement, a lot of wealthy white women were the ones that were out there advocating in parades like this. In part because the parades excluded African Americans. But they were doing well and getting the word out. Miriam leslie changed her magazine to make sure that it included illustrations like this. If you study on once she took over, you can see a clear trajectory into the feminist causes of the era. Which is interesting. And finally, we are going to look at an example of anti suffrage. This is from park. It is from 1894, new york had tried to change its state referenda to include womens right to vote. But it failed. Despite having a petition having 600,000 signatures in support of changing the states legislation, the referendum failed. This exemplifies what was happening in this era where the suffragists had taken on a state by state approach. They were no longer going for this amendment change that hadnt been proposed in 18 seventies or the judiciary changes. They try to do a full court press process statebystate. It was very frustrating. Which puck is not supporting the womans cause. How can she vote when the fashions are so wide and the voting booths are so narrow . It is depicting this woman as a fanciful, not serious, dates if you will. She cant even figure out how to dress herself, much less finish in a voting booth. How could women even see themselves having a political voice . There is a lot of anti suffrage from companies who during the whole movement, in the exhibition i chose to highlight some of those examples. But really not focus on them too much. It was more interesting to find out how African Americans were really involved and what the strategies were in the movement. So we are looking at two examples of the history of colorado and womens voted rights. I wanted to highlight colorado because it is the first state where suffragists were able to lobby and convince the male legislators to change their state constitution to make sure that women could vote. If that makes sense, wyoming was a territory and they sort of grandfathered in the right to vote when it came to the estate. Women didnt have to lobby wyoming legislators after became a state to get the right to vote. It was already written into the constitution. The colorado example is pretty interesting. If you come in close you can see the three party tickets. At the very bottom, this would be what they voted with. Equal suffrage approved or equal suffrage not approved. We once colorado women sheaf the right to vote they elected fema legislators. This is a portrait of three of the four female legislators from the era of 1893 and 1894. It is the louise karlyn, louise jones an egg mass little. You have two democrats and one with republican. You have three portraits of African Americans. There is cooper in the middle and mary terrell on the right. These were studio portraits that were made of these women while they were students at overland college. It was started by abolitionists and was one of the first liberal arts schools, not the first in the u. S. , to accept an African American students. What i love about these portraits is how young they are. You know that each one went on to lead great lives as activists, as women who are advocating for Citizenship Rights for all people in the United States but particularly African Americans. Especially anna julia cooper, she was a teacher in washington d. C. That is now the denver high school. She was living the life of someone who truly believed and giving liberal Arts Education to African Americans. We Mary Church Terrell in 1893 founded the association. But she was also teaching at the end street color school, which of course is the high school in washington, d. C. What i like about these two women is that they were especially taking on sort of the responsibility to assimilate African Americans in the post civil war reconstruction era, in a way that would give them way color access. So they became, once they went to the high school, then college, and then they were businesspeople, leaders. Teachers are nurses. They embody that argument with of booker tea washington that these how to best assimilate African Americans during reconstruction. Booker tea washington advocated for technical training. And these women were walking the walk. They are less recognized than the men and they are 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. African american women were doing lots and lots of activism even though they were still excluded from the National American woman suffrage association, which the two fractions we were talking about in the very beginning when in 1870 they have come back together in 1892. They then move forward with great force and good 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 act of and within themselves on their own group and their own societies and their own local communities. We are standing in front of a banner in 1911 carried by inez milholland. The writing is actually an excerpt called the glorious light, written in 1871 by the british dean of canterbury. What i love about this banner is how it has that sense of spirituality up through the 19 teens. It also has that sense of emerging onward and making progress forward. I want to make sure to include a couple of banners in the National Womens party. It also points to the activism. And a lot of thinking throughout the movement. This concludes the first half of the exhibition. We have covered the movement up through 1912. We 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 they will switch tactics and really achieve progress in a very comparatively small amount of time. And then talk about the changes and the ongoing battle through 1965. Next, a visit to the smithsonians National Portrait gallery. It is the second of a twopart program. A historian gave American History tv a guided tour about the exhibit marking the centennial of the 19th amendment, using political cartoons and images of suffragists picketing the white house, she explores the party tactics