Women's Equality Day 2014

In my last post I discussed the lack of planning for the NY Women's Suffrage Centennial. This is not to say that there are not efforts being made throughout the state, but they are typically individual women's history sites going about there regular business, which is FABULOUS! but more effort is needed if we are to get a fire started.

That said, Women's Equality Day is fast approaching. What is Women's Equality Day you ask? It is the anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment's official inclusion in the US Constitution guaranteeing that the right to vote will not be denied due to gender. The Amendment was ratified one week prior on August 18, 1920 when the Tennessee legislature voted in favor of ratification. The House passed it by ONE VOTE!

19th Amendment stamp 1998- 150th anniversary of Seneca Falls Convention

Women's Equality Day, August 26th, is approved by resolution every year as it is not a national Holiday. This year marks the 94th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Here are some places in NY commemorating Women's Equality Day & the 94th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment (all times are EDT). If you know of any others, please let me know...

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, NY (near Syracuse) will present a program "Legacies of Equality" on Sunday, August 24 at 2:00 p.m.

*Foundation for the National Archives in conjunction with the Sewell-Blemont House are presenting a live stream via YouTube- Women's history on the horizon: The Centennial of Women's Suffrage in 2020- Tuesday, August 26 at 7:00 pm.

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Hometown Association in Johnstown, NY is hosting a garden party on Monday, August 25.

Women's e-News is hosting a live stream of the 1972 documentary "The Hand hat Rocks the Ballot Box" on Tuesday, August 26 at 6:00 p.m.

 Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY does not have a specific commemoration, but the M'Clintock House is open, and Ranger Programs are offered all weekend.

The National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House in Rochester, NY held their event last weekend, but it is always a great place to visit.

If nothing else, invite some friends over & have a suffrage tea. Tea parties were a frequent fundraising event for the later half of the suffrage movement. I even have a Votes for Women tea pot & tea towel. There is a great collection of china displayed on the Suffrage Memorabilia page. For event kits & balloons, check out the National Women's History Project.

Here are some women's suffrage blogs you might be interested in as well:

Suffrage Wagon News Channel
Suffrage Centennials
Long Island and the Woman Suffrage Movement
Woman and Her Sphere
Suffrage Memorobilia


*added 8/20/14 at 3:57 pm

Is she going to talk about voting? Again? (soap box alert)

As you all know, I love the Women Suffrage Movement. Are you bored yet? I hope not. I try to keep it interesting. Maybe my giddy fascination with Susan B. Anthony, the 19th Amendment, Votes for Women postcards, et al, is enough for you to keep reading.

This post is also about my grandmother, Jacqueline Aileen Martin (nee Drew). My grandmother never learned how to drive. My mother, her eldest daughter, lived down the road & drove her many places. That is one of the reasons that my siblings & I were so close to Nanny. That's what we called her as kids, but it morphed to Gram once we got to high school.

She & my mother used to go grocery shopping every other Thursday morning. They usually went to the Super Shop 'N Save (now Hannaford) on Quaker Road in Queensbury. My younger sister would ride in Nanny's cart & I would ride with Mom. It was a sort of divide and conquer technique. If Heather & I were together we would keep badgering Mom until she couldn't take it anymore. It was easier to stay on budget (& more sane) to separate us. If we were lucky Nanny would buy us each a 25 cent box of animal crackers!

As I have mentioned before, I am helping my mother clean out my grandparents house. In it I have found some treasures to add to the Town of Greenwich collection. One is a pay receipt to my grandmother. Since it is dated 11/06/1975 I am guessing it was her pay for being an election inspector. That means she was an election inspector for 30 years, maybe more.

Election Inspectors earned $2.10 per hour in 1975

Town of Greenwich Supervisor Nelson's envelope

Primary season is fast approaching. Then will come the Presidential election, with some Senators, & all of the Reps too! No matter what your party affiliation, or lack there of... get out there & VOTE!

• For all of the people who can't vote.
• For all of the women who struggled for 72 years to vote.
• For Blacks who were denied voting rights under Jim Crow.
• For American Indians, many whom did not obtain equal suffrage until 1948.
• For citizens that are denied the right to vote.

Root of Democracy stamp series- note the Election stamp

For more information on the history of voting in the US- http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/voting_rights_act_timeline20111222.pdf

Play it again, Harry!

While trying to come up with a blog post for today, I thought of a binder I glanced at when I first became Town Historian; a slim, 1 1/2" black thing entitled "Outstanding Women of Greenwich" compiled by longtime Gill Room volunteer, Jane Whitaker. In it are a number of articles from The Greenwich Journal & Salem Press about Grandma Moses.

1969 Grandma Moses stamp*

The one I found most interesting is from May 18, 1948, called "President Plays for Grandma At Her Request." Apparently Grandma Moses, who was receiving an award and having tea with Bess Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt (who was also receiving an award) and a number of other award winning women, asked President Truman to play the piano so she could go home and boast that she had heard him play. The president obliged! I wonder what he played?

Grandma Moses, 88, received an award for outstanding achievement in art for 1948. It was awarded by the Women's National Press Club. Eleanor Roosevelt was named Woman of the Year for her work with the United Nations in regards to human rights.

Other honorees were

• Dorothy McCullough Lee- Mayor of Portland, OR
• Madeline Carroll- actress
• Mary Jane Ward- author of The Snake Pit
• Marjorie Child Husted- home economist & businesswoman

According to Grandma Moses, she began painting in 1940 because "I had neuritis in my hands. I couldn't sew, and I had to do something."

Anna Mary Robertson Moses died in 1961 and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Hoosick Falls, NY.

The largest public collection of her painting is at the Bennington Museum in Bennington VT. http://www.benningtonmuseum.org/


*This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GrandmaMosesStamp1969.jpg

Happy New Year!

In trying to come up with a New Year themed post, I was at a loss until I thought of Miss Mary Moriarty's post cards. You may recall I used one in my May 5, 2011 post about girl baby names. Well, in this collection are two New Year's post cards that I thought I would share with you.

This card was postmarked December 31, 1906 in NYC. There is no indication of who it is from. Was Mary in NYC for the New Year & mailed it back to herself? It's hard to tell in this image, but the background is a pretty luminous silver.

Front New Year post card- 12/31/1906

Back of card showing postmark & 1 cent Franklin stamp

This one is postmarked Saratoga Springs, January 1, 1907 12 M. I'm assuming that means 12:00 a.m. Midnight! Very cool.

The handwriting says "From J.P.D 12/31/06"

See where the postmark says 12 M... Another Franklin 1 cent

There a quite a few more cards in the collection. I'll share some with you throughout the upcoming year.

Happy 2012!

FDR and the SBA stamp

Many people don't realize that New York State is the only state in the union with a law that states that every municipality (village, town, city, borough, county) within the state must have an officially appointed public historian. It has been this way since 1919.*

I, myself, have been the officially appointed town historian for Greenwich since April 24, 2003 It was my 29th birthday, so it makes it pretty easy to remember the date.

One of the most famous public historians of the last 92 years was FDR. Yes, before he was our 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the appointed public historian for the town of Hyde Park, just north of Poughkeepsie, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Mr. Roosevelt was appointed in 1926, and remained until he was elected president in 1932.^

The following presidential election year, FDR decided to revise the stamp design of a prominent former resident of Greenwich... Susan B. Anthony. The 1936, 50 cent, purple stamp with "Aunt Susan" in profile was originally designed without the dark purple oval.**
Click here http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/services/historian/srvfdr.html to see his sketch.

1936 USPS stamp honoring Susan B. Anthony

I think I might start collecting stamps... Here are a few more.

1848 was the year of the Seneca Falls Convention where Stanton demanded the right to vote



The leader of the American Woman Suffrage Association


* www.aphnys.org
^ http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/services/historian/srvfdr.html
** http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_15.html