In this episode, we talk about the suffrage movement in Connecticut.

● Abby & Julia Smith–two sisters who farmed refused to pay the unfair increase in their taxes declaring: no taxation without representation.
● Mary Townsend Seymour was a Black suffragist who worked as a union organizer as well as creating inter-racial coalitions to address issues including working conditions, segregation, education, and housing.
● Elsie Vervane worked in a munitions factory during WWI to support her family and was active in the union as well as promoting women’s suffrage.
● Helena, Elsie and Clara Hill were three sisters who worked in the suffrage movement with Helena and Elsie picketing the White House and serving jail time.
● Emmeline Pankhurst visited Connecticut in 1913 and gave her most famous speech, “Freedom or Death” in Hartford’s Parson’s Theater.

About our Guest:
Joanie DiMartino has spent decades in the museum profession, specializing in the history of women in social justice movements. She has a MA in public history from Rutgers University. She serves as the CT Coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail through the National Collaborative of Women’s History Sites, which she represented on the Connecticut Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission. She now serves as co-President of the NCWHS.

Links to People, Places, Publications:
Connecticut & the 19th Amendment (here)
Abby & Julia Smith story (here)
Mary Townsend Seymour Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Mary Townsend Seymour marker (here)
Elsie Vervane Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Elsie Vervane historical marker (here)
Katherine Houghton Hepburn Biographical Sketch (here)
Emmeline Pankhurst Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Katherine Houghton Hepburn–Emmeline Pankhurst marker (here)
Elsie Hill Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Hill Sisters’ marker (here)
Visit the Katherine Luddington marker (here)
Visit the Emily Pierson marker (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org

In this episode, we talk about the suffrage movement in Utah.

Some of the activists and events in the UT voting rights campaign:

• Hannah Kaaepa, a native Hawaiian living in a Latter-day Saints community in Utah, spoke powerfully for women’s suffrage alongside national leaders of the movement.
• Elizabeth Taylor was a suffragist, journalist, and equal rights leader, and in 1904, she established The Western Federation of Colored Women.
• Emma McVicker was a bridge builder in the suffrage movement and actively worked to put women forward as candidates for public office.
• Lucy Rice Clark was chosen as the first female delegate to attend and vote at the Republican National Convention in 1908 and declared, “It means so much for the cause of woman suffrage!”
• In 1911, a slate of women candidates was entered into a town council election as a joke by some men. The five women won in a surprising result and proceeded to improve the town in multiple ways over their two-year term.

About our Guest:

Katherine Kitterman is the Executive Director of Better Days, a nonprofit centered on Utah women’s history, and manages the Women's History Initiative at the Utah Historical Society. She is a public historian with a specialty in Utah women's history of suffrage and advocacy. She co-authored two books about Utah women’s work for suffrage: Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History, and Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah.

Links to People, Places, Publications:

Utah & the 19th Amendment (here)

The Story of Utah Women’s Suffrage (here)

Visit the “A Path Forward” memorial (here)

Emma McVicker Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Emma McVicker marker (here)

Elizabeth Taylor Biographical Sketch (here)

See the Trinity AME historic church (here)

Lucy Rice Clark Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Lucy Rice Clark historical marker (here)

Hannah Kaaepa Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Hannah Kaaepa marker (here)

The 1911 Kanab Town Council story (here)

Visit the Kanab Town Council marker (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org

In this episode, we talk about the suffrage movement in Indiana.

Some of the activists and events in the IN voting rights campaign:

• Sojourner Truth traveled to Indiana several times to speak in a number of towns, while the state’s 1851 constitution barred Black persons from entering to reside or settle.
• Helen Gougar mobilized scores of women to show up at the polls around the state in 1894, demanding the right to vote, and she sued her county for denying her suffrage, ultimately testifying before the Indiana Supreme Court.
• Madam C.J. Walker–pioneering Black business owner of a hair and beauty empire–hosted meetings of the African American Indiana Equal Suffrage Association in her Indianapolis home and donated generously to the movement.
• Ida Usted Harper was a Hall-of-Fame journalist and worked with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on the history of women’s suffrage project.

About our Guest:

Melissa Gentry is the Supervisor of the Paul W. Stout Map Collection at Ball State University Libraries. She was a featured speaker for the Indiana Suffrage Centennial and created a set of maps about the history of Indiana women battling for the ballot. She also serves as the coordinator of the Muncie and Delaware County Notable Women local history project, which won the Outstanding Collaborative Project Award from the Indiana Historical Society in 2023.

Links to People, Places, Publications:

Indiana & the 19th Amendment (here)

Visit the Sojourner Truth statue (here)

Naomi Anderson Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Naomi Anderson memorial sculpture (here)

Helen Gougar Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Helen Gougar historical marker (here)

Visit the Marie Stuart Edwards statue (here)

Ida Usted Harper Biographical Sketch (here)

Madam C.J. Walker Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Madam Walker Legacy Center (here)

Carrie Barnes Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the May Wright Sewall historical marker (here)

Visit the Grace Julian Clark historical marker (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org