Evanston Women's History Project

100 years ago in June 1913, Illinois women won the right to vote. The story of the battle for suffrage in Illinois is important for several reasons:

• Illinois was the first state east of the Mississippi to expand the vote to women;
• Illinois was a more populous state than any previous state to give women the vote; and,
• Illinois women were able to vote for Presidential electors, shifting the balance of power in national elections.

The victory in Illinois propelled the national suffrage movement into its final phase, leading to the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. For Evanstonians, this moment is even more important, as Evanston women were largely responsible for bringing this important victory to all Illinois women.

To honor the occasion, a partnership of Evanston organizations, including EWHP, is planning a celebratory Suffrage Rally, Friday June 14, 2013 at 5 pm at the Frances Willard House, 1730 Chicago Avenue. Live music, historic re-enactments, and speeches by local officials will be featured. Led by the Evanston League of Women Voters, the partners include the City of Evanston, Evanston History Center, Frances Willard Historical Association, Woman’s Club of Evanston, and the YWCA Evanston/North Shore. Voter Registration will be available and eligible new voters are encouraged to come and register. The event is free and open to the public. As part of the celebration, the City of Evanston declared June 14, 2013 to be officially 100 Years of Women Voting day.

Two other anniversary events are also being planned. On Sunday, June 2, 2013 at 4 pm, Lori Osborne, EWHP Director, and Cate Whitcomb, President-elect of the Evanston League of Women Voters, will give a “Views from the Porch” talk at the Frances Willard House, 1730 Chicago Avenue, titled: 100 Years of Women Voting: Illinois Women and the Fight for Suffrage in 1913. Featuring the stories of three Evanston women who provided leadership in the local, state and national suffrage movement, the talk will conclude with discussion about current issues of citizenship and women’s rights. Cost is $5, or $10 with a tour of the Willard House beginning at 3 pm. Reservations are encouraged as space is limited; please email info@franceswillardhouse.org or call (847)328-7500.

On Saturday June 8, 2013 a showing of Iron Jawed Angels, the award-winning HBO film starring Anjelica Huston and Hilary Swank, will take place at the Evanston Public Library at 2 pm. Discussion will follow the film. The film tells the story of the national suffrage movement through its final struggles and eventual success in 1920. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information about all of these events, additional statewide events, and the historical significance of the anniversary, visit the Illinois League of Women Voters website, www.lwvil.org/2013celebration. The June 14th Suffrage Rally is a Celebrate!2013 event. For more about the year-long celebration of Evanston’s 150th Anniversary visit www.evanston150.org.

This post originates from the Evanston History Center’s blog. Written by Lori Osborne, Archivist at the Evanston History Center and Director of the Evanston Women’s History Project, it covers news of a recent visit she made to Washington D.C.  To see the entire post, click here.

In early December, I had the distinct pleasure of being invited to participate in a workshop held in Washington D.C. to develop recommendations for improving the way our National Park System documents and interprets women’s history at National Parks, National Historic Sites, National Historic Landmarks and the National Register. I went in my capacity as director of the Evanston Women’s History Project (located at the Evanston History Center) and as a board member of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites.

The workshop was held at the behest of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and his senior staff, following his call for the National Park Service to do more to tell all Americans’ stories, especially the stories of women. Only 4 % of sites within the park system either are related to significant moments in American women’s history or interpret the women’s history that took place there…. More

A new blog post on the Evanston History Center blog highlights the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Woman’s Club of Evanston’s clubhouse in 2013. The WCE has since its founding in 1889 made a huge contribution to the community, and part of the reason its has endured is because of the place it holds within the community’s geography through its clubhouse.

http://evanstonhistorycenter.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/it-takes-a-village-to-raise-and-maintain-a-building/

The EWHP is pleased to share these very interesting articles from Shorefront Journal, the blog of the Shorefront Legacy Center which works to document the story of African Americans on the North Shore and in Evanston. Shorefront has from the beginning been an important partner with the Evanston Women’s History Project, helping us capture the story of African American women in Evanston. These articles were written using their research collections as primary sources.

Carrie Crawford Smith’s “Back Door” Leadership

shorefrontjournal.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/carrie-crawford-smiths-back-door-leadership/

A Portrait of Helen Cromer Cooper

shorefrontjournal.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/a-portrait-of-helen-cromer-cooper/

Helen Palmer Dawes

When researching a prominent woman in history, often our first inclination is to look to her public accomplishments.  We want to know how this woman enacted social change, because after all, that is what we as individuals are most affected by.  But when we only focus on her social or political work, we are completely missing another side of the story.

I was asked to do research on Helen Palmer Dawes, wife of Rufus Dawes and sister-in-law to Charles and Caro Dawes, for the Evanston Women’s History Project.  I went to the Special Collections Library at Northwestern University, expecting to find some interesting quotes or supporting information.  Indeed I found what I was looking for; Mrs. Dawes, publicly, was an incredibly outspoken woman.  She worked tirelessly for issues of food conservation and substitution during WWI, was president of the Woman’s Club of Evanston during their first two years in their new clubhouse, was the first female library board member in Evanston, and was Chair of the Social Committee at the Century of Progress – and the list goes on.

Paging through her diary, however, I found a much different story.  It was about her children and family life, chronicled in detail.  I learned about first words and first steps, broken arms and lost teeth, sports and school assignments.  Turning to her diary for the years that she would have started her Woman’s Club and Library positions, I found a large gap between April 6, 1913 and Mar 29, 1914.  On the left side of the book were two hastily pasted newspaper articles about these positions.  The right side began:  “The newspaper clippings on the opposite page are intended as a lame excuse for neglecting to chronicle the doings of the Dawes children in this book.  I have been doing too many things that have made me put off writing.  Now so many happy times and funny sayings will be forgotten, all because mother went to the Club.”

Mrs. Dawes felt the drive and the passion to enact social change, but like so many women both before and after her, she struggled with the delicate balance of being an activist and being a mother.  This is not an issue new to women, brought on by the women’s movement of the 1970s, but instead something that has affected women for decades.  If we had to ask Mrs. Dawes today, would she want us to remember her for her public accomplishments, or instead the accomplishments of her children?

What you read about in public documents only provides a snapshot of what these women did; it is not all of whom they were.  Learning about her family life, her children, even her own childhood demonstrates that these women, too, were human beings with the same joys and struggles as non-activists.  As women’s history month comes to a close, remember to always reflect on the fact that there is always another story to tell.

Erin Hvizdak is an intern at the Evanston History Center and volunteer in the Frances Willard House Museum archives.  She is currently pursuing her MA in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies at Loyola University Chicago.

Frances Willard, ca. 1890

March is Women’s History Month and this year we will be highlighting some of the as-yet untold women’s history stories we’ve uncovered through our research for this project. More on that to come. In the meantime, take a minute during this month to honor those women who’ve made an impact on your life and your world. And, if you want to get connected to the women’s history beyond your immediate circle, here are some great resources (other than this web site) to do just that.

Happy Women’s History Month!

Library of Congress — Women’s History Month – http://womenshistorymonth.gov/

National Women’s History Project – http://www.nwhp.org/whm/index.php

National Park Service — Women’s History Sites on the National Register of Historic Places – http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/wom/

National Women’s History Museum – http://www.nwhm.org/

A note about the photo – Frances Willard learned to ride the bicycle at the age of 50. She wrote a pioneering book called A Wheel Within a Wheel about the experience, highlighting the great joy and freedom she found while riding. This book was the first written by a woman about a sporting activity. Willard was always ahead of everyone, even in women’s sports!