The Heritage Museum of Orange County (California) was honored to receive a first-place award from New Mexico Press Women at their annual conference and awards ceremony held at Ghost Ranch near Santa Fe, NM. The NMPW, the largest of New Mexico’s media organizations, is also the largest state chapter in the national organization, the National Federation of Press Women. Suffrage Wagon News Channel (SuffrageWagon.org) has been publishing since 2009. The multi-media suffrage wagon platform features videos, audio podcasts, as well as news and views updates about trends, events, and perspectives about the women’s suffrage movement in the United States.

NMPW judges said that Eighty Bug’s music video, “’Spirit of 1776’: A Suffragette Anthem” was “a high-quality, engaging video with a great story well done.” The award-winning video of three and a half minutes highlights one version of the grassroots story of American women campaigning for voting rights from 1848 to 1920. This time span stretches from the 1848 women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY to the 1920 ratification of the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Millions of women across the United States voted on November 2, 1920.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES ASSOCIATED WITH SUFFRAGE WAGON VIDEO

Because the Heritage Museum of Orange County was able to provide a set, a wagon, a blacksmith shop, and staff support, composer and performer Eighty Bug took the project a step farther than just writing the song. She organized friends and family members to act and perform in the various scenes, film and edit the performance into a polished production.

The creative team for the music video included Eighty Bug (Production/Costumes), Edwin Carungay, Lesha Maria Rodriguez (Directors/Videographers),and Jon Lagda (Art Director). The video and song featureThe Suffragist Sisters, led by Eighty (Banjolele, Ukulele, Bass and Lead Vocals), famed violinist Lisa Lui (strings) Eighty’s younger sister Savannah (Backing Vocals), Ashli Lee Christoval, and Laura Guaico, The song was rounded out by Max McVetty (percussion), JRAT (guitar, mixing and mastering) with special thanks to Adam England, Jamie Sue Hiber and The Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana, CA.

THE “SPIRIT OF 1776” WAGON ON EXHIBIT DURING 2017 AND INTO 2018

The “Spirit of 1776” wagon featured in the award-winning music video is an historic artifact in the collection of the New York State Museum that was used by Edna Buckman Kearns. The horse-drawn wagon is considered an icon of Votes for Women campaigning because of its message of taxation without representation and a call to return to the spirit of equality and freedom that was written into the Declaration of Independence.

The horse-drawn campaign wagon, the “Spirit of 1776″ is on exhibit during 2017 as part of the state’s centennial celebration of the win for women’s voting rights in 1917. It is part of the major women’s suffrage exhibit opening on November 4, 2017 at the NYS Museum in Albany, NY.

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“Choose it and Use it” is a video reminding us of how the past is linked to what we do today and its impact on the future.