Women’s History Resources

March ended yesterday and with it ended the celebration of Women’s History Month.  This year, the celebration of women’s history has been overshadowed by the current COVID-19 health crisis.  While seemingly forgotten, this is an important year to celebrate women’s history as it is the centennial celebration of the 19th amendment, which prevented states from denying women the right to vote.  I had planned to provide you a list of sites to visit to celebrate women’s history all throughout the year but with the travel bans in place, visiting in person is not an option. However many sites have made their exhibits and artifacts available online.  Take a look at the many resources and celebrate women’s history all year!  

General Women’s History Sites and Celebrations

• Women’s History Month website online collections
• Travel Where Women Made History website by the National Park Service
  • 19th Amendment resources
• National Women’s History Museum
• Women in Congress online exhibit

California

• Women’s Museum of California

Maryland

• Maryland Women’s Heritage Center

New York

• National Women’s Hall of Fame
• New-York Historical Society
  • Center for Women’s History
  • Women March exhibit 

• Susan B. Anthony House
  • Online exhibit
  • Susan B. Anthony online exhibit from Google Arts and Culture

• Women’s Rights National Historical Park
  • Virtual tour

North Carolina

• North Carolina Museum of History
  • You Have to Start a Thing exhibit

Ohio

• First Ladies National Historic Site (see also my post on Presidential and First Lady sites)
• International Women’s Air and Space Museum

Pennsylvania

• Museum of the American Revolution
  • When Women Lost the Vote exhibit

Tennessee

• State Capitol (site of final ratification of the 19th amendment)
• Hermitage Hotel
• Women’s Suffrage Statue, Centennial Park

Virginia

• Lucy Burns Museum at the Workhouse Arts Center
• Library of Virginia
  • We Demand: Women’s Suffrage in Virginia exhibit
• The Valentine
  • #BallotBattle: Richmond’s Social Struggle for Suffrage exhibit
• Virginia Capitol Women’s Monument
• Virginia Museum of History and Culture 
  • Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia from Women’s Suffrage to Today exhibit
• U.S. Army Women’s Museum

Washington, DC

• Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality Monument
• Library of Congress
  • Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote exhibit
• National Archives
  • Rightfully Hers exhibit (7 galleries)
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
  • Virtual tour
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History
  • Special exhibit, Creating Icons: How We Remember Women’s Suffrage – opened in March 2020 
  • The Suffragist online resources
  • Objects of History: Woman Suffrage
  • National Youth Summit on Woman Suffrage: The Ballot and Beyond

• Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery 
  • Votes for Women exhibit
  • First Ladies portraits

Books to Read:

• 14 and up:
  • Smithsonian American Women: Remarkable Objects and Stories of Strength, Ingenuity, and Vision from the National Collection
  • The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection
  • First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies
  • The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
  • Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote
  • The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia
  • Changing History: Virginia Women Through Four Centuries
  • Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
• 10 and up:
  • The Woman’s Hour (Adapted for Young Readers): Our Fight for the Right to Vote (comes out in June 2020)
  • Hidden Figures Young Readers
  • Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World
  • 100 Women Who Made History: Remarkable Women Who Shaped Our World
  • What is the Women’s Rights Movement?
• 6 and up:
  • Fashions of First Ladies Paper Dolls
  • Fight of the Century
  • Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
  • Leaders and Dreamers
  • Who Was Susan B. Anthony?

• Updated in March, 2022