Features suffrage wagon at the Long Island Museum
Marguerite’s Musings: Grandmother Edna was born on Christmas day in 1882. My mother told me how Edna hated having her birthday on Christmas. She claimed to always get shirt shrift as a child when it came to gifts and attention on her birthday. For Edna, Christmas meant books as gifts; each book contained sweet messages…
Continue Reading“Hey, people like history. Some love it. They read books, go to history-themed movies, visit museums and historic sites, preserve buildings, research their family genealogies, participate in re-enactments, support local historical societies, and hold never-ending debates about historical subjects that matter to them. History is fun, yes, and even entertaining. But it’s more than that….
Continue Reading“Why We Women Must Vote in November: An Inspirational Story from the California Suffragists” by filmmaker Martha Wheelock When we women vote for U.S. President this November, we mark the 100th anniversary of California women’s first vote for president, an election when 90 per cent of the rest of American women could NOT vote. While…
Continue ReadingGrandmother Edna’s suffrage campaign wagon is in line to become a teachable moment every time a school group spends time with the exhibit, “From Seneca Falls to the Supreme Court” that’s on display at the state Capitol in Albany, NY. And right now through October 11th, the state education department is accepting public input on…
Continue ReadingWho would have thought that a suffrage parade would attract mass attention in 2012? This happened in the UK recently when descendants of suffragettes and others marched at the Olympic opening ceremonies. It’s not the best video (see link below) possible, but it gives a feel for how it must have been for the suffrage…
Continue ReadingWhen people say they feel helpless in the face of overwhelming odds, an attitude or obstacle, it’s time for all of us to remember the serious resistance the British women were up against in their fight for the ballot. The movement required more than a stiff upper lip. In the process, the suffragettes’ tactics became known…
Continue ReadingIt’s one thing to read about the split between Alice Paul and the main suffrage organization at the time, NAWSA. It’s quite another to realize that Grandmother Edna Kearns witnessed it. An article in the New York Tribune in November following the big 1913 suffrage parade laid out how the New Yorkers headed to Washington,…
Continue ReadingEdna Kearns documented as well as participated in the suffrage movement in the New York City area. She wrote for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Brooklyn Times and many Long Island papers. She’s shown here in a news photo, fourth from the left, in an article describing the performers in the 1914 Armory pageant. Edna…
Continue ReadingThere came a time in the American, as well as the English woman’s suffrage campaigns, when it became obvious that without bolder action, progress couldn’t be made. A BBC audio recording of nine minutes made in 1946 features suffragette Ada Flatman speaking about risking arrest for the suffrage campaign in England. This first-person account by…
Continue ReadingWhether or not the remarkable response from men for suffrage was expected back in 1914 isn’t clear. However, this article published in the New York Herald about the huge suffrage pageant at the Armory documents a growing and more influential suffrage movement. The article noted that support from men had grown significantly in the previous three…
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