Wolfgast Knocked Out by a Suffragist: Former Champion Goes Down in Three Rounds in Battle of Words” headlined the sports page of the May 2, 1914, edition of the Grand Rapids Press, when local suffragists took over production of the newspaper for the day. The takeover was a result of the National American Woman Suffrage […]
Sponsored by She Rides Her Own Way, the Grand Rapids Public Library’s GR Reads program, and the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, a one-of-a-kind bicycle tour will make stops at Fulton Street and Oakhill cemeteries, highlighting remarkable as well as lesser-known local women, who have made a difference in the history of our city.
Sponsored by She Rides Her Own Way, the Grand Rapids Public Library’s GR Reads program, and the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, a one-of-a-kind bicycle tour will make stops at Fulton Street and Oakhill cemeteries, highlighting remarkable as well as lesser-known local women, who have made a difference in the history of our city.
Check for us at food-truck Thursday on the patio of the Grand Rapids Art Museum! Once again, we will buttonhole passers-by about the 98th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and remind them of the centennial of constitutionally guaranteed universal suffrage in 2020! We’ll have great local history materials.
Susan B. Anthony had visited West Michigan many times, but her last appearance was at the 1899 NAWSA annual convention in Grand Rapids, the only time the National American Woman Suffrage Association met in Michigan. Using images and period language, Jo Ellyn Clarey of the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council will recreate the feel of […]
During the week of April 27th through May 4th 1918, twenty thousand Grand Rapids women, half the city’s female population, registered for the war effort. One thousand registrars were trained to conduct a twenty-to-thirty-minute interview with each woman. Her information was recorded on a 5 X 8 card, designed and printed in Washington DC and […]
Hear Lisa McCubbin discuss her new book, Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor and Trailblazer. It is based on intimate in-depth interviews with family friends and colleagues. McCubbin reveals a fiercely independent woman who had a lively sense of humor, unwavering faith, and an indomitable spirit - the true story behind of the most […]
Attention, educators! In celebration of the centennial birthday of Mrs. Betty Ford, the Gerald R. Ford Foundation is presenting a free, day-long professional development workshop for educators focused on women's leadership. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of both the character and causes of Mrs. Ford as well as her contributions to women’s rights. Following […]
Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council President Melissa Fox will illustrate how in 1917 area women joined the largest wartime mobilization of their young country. Long-time ideas about food, children, and factory life suddenly took off when women were granted a federal mandate by the establishment of Woman’s Committees by the Council of National Defense. […]
Join us for a riveting account of the stories of early local pastors’ wives! When Janet Sjaarda Sheeres was editing a 700-page tome on early synod minutes of the Christian Reformed Church (1857-1880), she realized that she had waded into an all-male world, where women’s concerns were seldom considered and their stories never recorded. Sheeres immediately […]