Hollyhock Lane Parade
2020-07-04 08:00 - 09:30 (America/New_York) | MI

Emily Burton Ketcham Graveside Event on Her Birth Date in 1838
2020-07-16 19:00 - 20:00 | MI
On July 16th, 2020, between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm, we will honor “Michigan’s greatest suffragist,” Emily Burton Ketcham, at an informal gathering by her grave site on the anniversary of her 1838 birth in Grand Rapids. Watch for fuller directions within Rosedale Memorial Park, Standale; plan on social distancing and have a mask, just in case. Feel free to bring a chair, a drink, and one or more flowers. Even a single stem would be a lovely tribute as we gather and share information about Ketcham in the month before the centennial of the 19th Amendment! Ketcham died early in 1907 and, like her friend Susan B. Anthony, did not live to enjoy the right to vote.
Rosedale Memorial Park
O-50 Lake Michigan Drive NW
Standale MI 49544

Saugatuck-Douglas History Center – Tuesday Talks, “Getting the Vote: Michigan Women and the Path to Suffrage,”
2020-07-28 11:00 - 12:30 | MI
Getting the Vote: Michigan Women and the Path to Suffrage
Zoom: Saugatuck-Douglas History Center, Tuesday Talks
July 28 at 11:00 a.m.
Free — for directions,
RSVP via Eventbrite
For the past year, GGRWHC board member Ruth Stevens has hit the road charting the path to suffrage across southwest Michigan. Now she’s gone virtual! At her July 28th Tuesday Talk sponsored by the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center, she will connect the local with accounts of the broader suffrage movement and offer highlights to illustrate how persistent were activists from both large and small communities, from the 1870s until Michigan women finally won full voting rights in 1918. Yes, 1918–almost two years before the 19th Amendment guaranteed suffrage to all citizens nationwide.
Stevens will offer a fascinating look at the early days–how the 1867 granting of school suffrage to Michigan women led to service as early as the 1880s on school boards, the first elective offices held by women. Michigan was often in the national eye, specifically because very few states had granted women school suffrage. National leaders hoped that a win in Michigan for full voting rights would create a ripple effect across the country.
Join us for this free Zoom program! It will require an RSVP through Eventbrite for a secure link. Getting the Vote: Michigan Women and the Path to Suffrage Please share! See you on Zoom!

Relax at Rosa with the GGRWHC!
2020-08-20 12:00 - 13:30 | MI
Relax at Rosa with the GGRWHC!
Thursday, August 20th, Noon to 1:30pm
Grand Rapids Art Museum Patio
The Relax at Rosa lunchtime entertainment series downtown occurs from Noon to 1:30 PM every Thursday through September 10th at Rosa Parks Circle. Local food trucks will be on site—and so will we! Look for the ladies in the hats! And masks~

Visit us on the Grand Rapids Art Museum patio between noon and 1:30 pm to learn more about the suffragist movement in Grand Rapids as well as the celebratory activity planned for Wednesday, August 26th – Here Lies a Suffragist. In honor of the of the women who worked to pass the voting rights amendment, the GGRWHC has selected a dozen suffragist graves in Fulton and Oakhill South cemeteries for recognition. Visit us Thursday at Rosa Parks Circle for a preview of names, maps and suggestions for decorations. And stay tuned!

Here Lies a Suffragist: Celebrate the Centennial Socially but Safely!
2020-08-26 06:00 - 20:00 | MI
Here Lies a Suffragist: Celebrate the Centennial Socially but Safely!

Our August 26th grave-decorating project, Here Lies a Suffragist, https://www.ggrwhc.org/suffrage-grand-rapids/ will substitute for our original in-person celebration. Please help us honor representative local suffragists on the centennial date of the Nineteenth Amendment, Wednesday, August 26th, 2020!
Here’s the plan! First, read through our Here Lies a Suffragist tour guides, and choose one woman (or more? or all!) to honor on Equality Day, August 26th. Make a graveside visit on the 26th, perhaps with flowers—even a single stem. The sites will be easily found—look for the purple balloons and “Votes for Women” badges.
As a record of your visit, please take a photo—of the decorated gravesite certainly; but including you, too, if you are willing. Please post it in the comments section of our Facebook post honoring the day! (If you do not use Facebook, please send it to our email address– info@ggrwhc.org) Don’t worry about grave clean up—we will see to it!

GGRWHC Centennial Blow-Out at St. Cecilia! [POSTPONED]
2020-08-26 19:00 - 21:30 | MI
Mark your calendars for the summer centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment! On the stage at St. Cecilia Music Center and at a reception upstairs later we will revel in the color and spectacle of the 72-year-long women’s suffrage movement and catch a glimpse of developments after 1920. Every year we celebrate August 26th as Equality Day. This year help us make it extra special on August 26th!

Generating Resources: Indexing an Army of Women
2020-09-12 13:30 - 15:00 | MI
Western Michigan Genealogical Society
Saturday, September 12th, 2020
Virtual Program (Click Here for Zoom Link)
Generating Resources: Indexing an Army of Women
Jo Ellyn Clarey, Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council
November 1918, 14,000 local suffrage supporters
Genealogists don’t always look to mass movements to locate individuals, especially women–or consider taking the next step toward resource creation when they discover a forebear’s name in a group listing. This program will call for the creation of indexes akin to the lists of Civil War soldiers, to assemble armies of women, making them forever easier to find. It will illustrate the riches to be yielded beginning with participant lists from early women’s social movements on the local level. The records of early women’s organizations were rarely considered worthy of archival collections or even attic space; so there are often no minutes or correspondence files. But we know that disciplined searches of newly digitized newspapers can result in columns of the names of women who were committee members of local literary societies and WCTU chapters, as well as those who embarked on political activities and wartime work. (This program will look beyond the WWI women’s registration cards, so well known in Grand Rapids. But those 23,000 names represent only one wartime project.) Still, energetic searches of newspapers often stop short with the discovery of just one particular name–even when it is one among 14,000 others who published their names in support of women’s suffrage in 1918 Grand Rapids. This program will discuss the benefits of placing ancestor names into their rich and intersecting contexts, and the need to structure a process for doing that.
By profession a literary scholar, Jo Ellyn Clarey has redirected her path into the world of local women’s history in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she has been tracking down the forgotten contributions of area women. For the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, she continues advancing long-term projects highlighting the roles of local women in the Michigan suffrage movement; overseeing a complete elective history of the city’s women; and organizing research on U.S. women’s immense, but little known, work during WWI. She has also served on the boards of the Grand Rapids Historical Society, the Grand Rapids Historical Commission, and acted as liaison to the Michigan Women’s Studies Association, whose statewide conference she has chaired. Clarey has presented at and organized programming for numerous institutions and academic conferences.

DEMOCRACY 101: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Voting Rights
2020-09-16 18:00 - 20:00 | MI
*Online via Zoom
The 19th amendment has been praised for a century as a landmark for women’s rights. Who gained the right to vote and who didn’t? What can you do to shape the next 100 years? Join us for presentations and remarks from President Mantella, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and more.
DEM 101 occurs on Wednesdays throughout the semester.
Visit gvsu.edu/service/dem101 for more events!

Reading into Suffrage History
2020-09-16 19:00 - 20:30 | MI
Reading into Suffrage History
Virtual Book Discussion
Wednesday, September 16th, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
The Woman’s Hour by Elaine Weiss

Free & open to the public
Register here!
Co-sponsored by the Grand Rapids Public Library
& the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council

The Woman’s Hour is the inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights. It features summer in Tennessee one hundred years ago. And Elaine Weiss will join us on September 16th to discuss her groundbreaking book featuring the nail-biting climax of the 72-year-fight to ensure all citizens the right to vote.
Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18th, and on the 26th it became the law of the land. We met Weiss when she visited Grand Rapids in 2018 to talk about The Woman’s Hour, and you may have seen her recently in 2020 centennial documentaries–The Vote and Carrie Chapman Catt on PBS, and more. We can ask her about progress on the mini-series to be based on this book! It includes Weiss’s report on an extraordinary moment in May 2020 when the voice of the daughter of a slave was heard inside the house chamber of the Tennessee Capitol. Scroll down to meet Juno Frankie Pierce! More here.
Prior to the shut-down, we had planned to follow our big August 26th celebration with opportunities to talk about books on suffrage history. Now the partnering groups are taking it virtual! Colleen Alles will represent the Grand Rapids Public Library, joined by Ruth Stevens for the GGRWHC. They will sketch out questions to start, but will try to keep the structure loose and also link content to the local history of Grand Rapids’ own suffragists.
Please join us even if you couldn’t finish the books. You will be inspired to keep reading! Anyone interested is welcome, but the virtual Zoom discussion will require an RSVP through EventBrite.
Find your own books or check one out from the Grand Rapids Public Library!
As soon as possible, use this GRPL link to place a hold. You might need to wait for a book to become available. And when you place a book on hold, it will be available for pickup at GRPL through GRPL to Go

PAULA MONOPOLI: CONSTITUTIONAL ORPHAN, A CONSTITUTION DAY CELEBRATION
2020-09-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Hauenstein Centery for Presidential Studies, Loosemore Auditorium, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49504
*You can reserve for this event until Sept. 24th at 7:00 pm.
The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in August 1920 represented a significant movement in American history. It promised women in our republic change in their political, civil, and social statuses. What followed was a decade of dispute among women’s movements, emerging from it a thin conception of the Nineteenth’s constitutional meaning as a nondiscrimination rule in voting. Why did this thin conception prevail over a broader one that included equal citizenship and gender equality? Moreover, what is the lasting role of the Nineteenth in the Constitution today?
In celebrating Constitution Day and the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Hauenstein Center welcomes Paula Monopoli, the Sol and Carlyn Hubert Professor of Law and founding director of the Women, Leadership, & Equality Program at Maryland Carey. In her new release, Constitutional Orphan: Gender Equality and the Nineteenth Amendment, Paula explores the roles of suffragists in the constitutional development of the Nineteenth Amendment. Drawing on historical sources, case analysis, and legal scholarship, Paula will offer broader ways in which the Nineteenth could be used today.

Conquering the Cough: Grand Rapids Women Beating Disease
2020-10-03 13:00 - 14:30 | MI
Michigan History Conference
Historical Society of Michigan
Friday-Saturday, October 2nd & 3rd, 2020

Conquering the Cough: Grand Rapids Women Beating Disease
Julie Hoogland, Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council
Sue Thoms, Spectrum Health Beat
1:00 pm on Saturday, October 3rd
Whooping cough was a killer disease fought during the 1930s and 1940s by innovative public health scientists, women on a shoestring budget, who pioneered unorthodox field studies and inspired a creative community collaboration in Grand Rapids. Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering ran one of the few U.S. public health laboratories in the nation dedicated to vaccine development, and their history in the development of controlled clinical trials is important. But, until recently, they have been left out of the standard histories of methodology and practice.
In September 2019, the Community Legends project unveiled a sculptural grouping of Kendrick, Eldering, and lab assistant Loney Clinton Gordon on the south porch of the Michigan State University Research Center, 400 Monroe Ave NW. This righting of historical amnesia with bronze public statuary honors one forgotten story of women, race, and vaccine development.
Forgotten histories and lessons will be revealed—that one creative solution can lead to another. The creation of the DPT vaccination—can shine a light on pressing social issues: pandemic, vaccines, race, and gender.
To register for this online conference.
Download entire conference schedule.

Women Should be Seen and Heard: Grand Rapids and the Fight for the Vote
2020-10-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtual – Additional Details Forthcoming
*Access to Virtual Online Presentation* Click Here to Register for Zoom Event and GRHS YouTube Presentation Click Here
The story of the women’s suffrage movement in Grand Rapids began as early as 1874 when Grand Rapids and Kent County suffragists organized and brought national leader Susan B. Anthony to Grand Rapids. Hosted by Grand Rapids suffragists Marion Carr Bliss and Cordelia Briggs, Anthony met with local suffrage leaders and spoke at Luce’s Hall in downtown Grand Rapids to large audiences. While the 1874 campaign was unsuccessful, suffragists persisted and finally claimed victory in 1918 when male electors voted to amend the Michigan constitution to grant women the right to vote.
Along the way, women in Grand Rapids petitioned, marched, spoke, canvassed, and organized as they fought for the right to vote. Highlights from their campaign include the 1888 election of Harriet A. Cook to the Grand Rapids School Board, the hosting of the 1899 convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association at St. Cecilia Auditorium in Grand Rapids, suffragists’ 1914 “take over” of the Grand Rapids Press, and the final push in 1918 when suffragists blanketed the city with posters and flyers as they pressed their cause. Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council board member Ruth Stevens will tell this story using archival photographs and the words of Grand Rapids suffragists that have been preserved in newspaper articles, scrapbooks, and rare oral interviews.
Ruth Stevens is a retired professor of Legal Studies at Grand Valley State University. She earned a J.D. from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Wayne State University, and she is currently a member of the board of the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council. Stevens has done extensive research on early school voting rights for Michigan women and has a special interest in the role of local suffrage organizations within the Michigan and national suffrage movements. During this centennial year celebration of the 19th Amendment, she has spoken to local history societies in Dowagiac, Coloma, Niles, Saugatuck, and now in Grand Rapids. Stevens was an editor for GGRWHC’s 2020 digital suffrage exhibit, authored materials for the Michigan Girl Scouts “Right to Vote Centennial” patch, and created a Michigan suffrage quiz available on the website of the 2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative. For these materials and more on women’s suffrage, see: https://www.ggrwhc.org/suffrage-home/.

“A Woman’s Place Is Under the Dome: Michigan’s Capitol and the Woman’s Suffrage Movement”!
2020-10-14 19:00 - 20:30 | MI
On Wednesday, October 14th, 7:00 pm, join Michigan Capitol Historian Valerie Marvin for “A Woman’s Place Is Under the Dome: Michigan’s Capitol and the Woman’s Suffrage Movement”! Join this program to relive important suffrage moments under Michigan’s dome, where you will also find Grand Rapids women lobbying and finally, in 1921, sitting in the state senate. The fight for woman’s suffrage began in Michigan in 1846, when woman’s rights advocate Ernestine Rose gave two speeches in Michigan’s first Capitol. Click here for a quick Wiki introduction to the little-heralded-but-marvelous Rose.

This virtual program is sponsored by the History Hounds series of the Historical Society of Michigan for a nominal charge. For details and to register, please click here.
If you are a member of the GGRWHC, you can attend free. (Otherwise, it is $7.) To get the organizational member number of the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, please email us or call: info@ggrwhc.org or (616) 574-7307.

CANCELLED--"Beyond 100 Years of Suffrage: Moving Forward Envisioning an Inclusive Future,” Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City MI
2020-10-16 - 2020-10-18 | MI

Reading into Suffrage History
2020-10-21 19:00 - 20:30 | MI
Reading into Suffrage History
Virtual Book Discussion
Wednesday, October 21st, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Death in Ten Minutes by Fern Riddell

Free & open to the public
Register here!
Co-sponsored by the Grand Rapids Public Library &
the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council

Death in Ten Minutes is a biography of Kitty Marion, who became one of the UK’s most militant suffragettes. The book illustrates the British campaign using Kitty’s life, and it doesn’t end in 1918 when some British women got the vote. In fact, many US suffragists and UK suffragettes went on to use their skills for other causes and social movements. Kitty was no exception. More here.
We are delighted that two specialists in British women’s history will provide context and help us to make connections between the US/UK sister movements. Former GVSU administrator and history professor Gretchen Galbraith will join us from her new home at SUNY Potsdam in New York, where she is dean of the School of Arts & Sciences; and Pamela Walker, Professor of History at Carleton University, will join from her home in Canada! They will help us understand how UK and US governmental systems are different, and why that made a difference; how political parties were involved differently in the two countries; how and why both movements split apart along the way; and when history writing and language can be controversial, and deserve discussion in itself!
Prior to the shut-down, we had planned to follow our big August 26th celebration with opportunities to talk about books on suffrage history. Now the partnering groups are taking it virtual! Colleen Alles, representing the Grand Rapids Public Library, will join Gretchen Galbraith, Pamela Walker, and a host for the GGRWHC. They will sketch out questions to start, but will try to keep the structure loose and also link content to the local history of Grand Rapids’ own suffragists.
Please join us even if you couldn’t finish the books. You will be inspired to keep reading! Anyone interested is welcome, but the virtual Zoom discussion will require an RSVP through EventBrite.
Find your own books or check one out from the Grand Rapids Public Library!
As soon as possible, use this GRPL link to place a hold. You might need to wait for a book to become available. And when you place a book on hold, it will be available for pickup at GRPL through GRPL to Go.

Reading into Suffrage History
2020-11-18 19:00 - 20:30 | MI
Reading into Suffrage History
Virtual Book Discussion
Wednesday, November 18th, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
All Bound Up Together by Martha S. Jones

Free & open to the public
Register here!
Co-sponsored by the Grand Rapids Public Library &
the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council

In All Bound Up Together, Martha S. Jones explores the roles played by 19th-century black women in their communities’ social movements during the run-up to the 20th century. Covering three generations of black women activists, she demonstrates that the “woman question” was at the core of movements against slavery and for civil rights.
Unlike white women activists, who usually created institutions separate from men, black women often organized within already existing churches, political organizations, mutual aid societies, and schools. Jones illustrates how women helped to shape the course of black public culture. More here.
Prior to the shut-down, we had planned to follow our big August 26th celebration with opportunities to talk about books on suffrage history. Now the partnering groups are taking it virtual! Colleen Alles will represent the Grand Rapids Public Library, joined by Sophia Brewer for the GGRWHC. They will sketch out questions to start, but will try to keep the structure loose and also link content to the local history of Grand Rapids’ own suffragists.
Please join us even if you couldn’t finish the books. You will be inspired to keep reading! Anyone interested is welcome, but the virtual Zoom discussion will require an RSVP through EventBrite.
Find your own books or check one out from the Grand Rapids Public Library!
As soon as possible, use this GRPL link to place a hold. You might need to wait for a book to become available. And when you place a book on hold, it will be available for pickup at GRPL through GRPL to Go.

LWV: African Americans in the suffrage movement
2021-02-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtual – Additional Details Forthcoming
This is an online event through the Women League of Voters GGR. https://www.facebook.com/events/1798650416965285

Ebony Road for GRPL, "Anne and Emmett"
2021-02-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Virtual Event
This is a virtual presentation through the Grand Rapids Public Library. https://www.grpl.org/event/ebony-road-players-present-anne-and-emmett/

Solidarities: White Women and Women of Color's Activism to Secure the Vote
2021-03-01 10:00 - 11:30 | Virtual Event
“Solidarities: White Women and Women of Color’s Activism to Secure the Vote,” opens the 12th Annual Kutsche Local History Roundtable. While the Nineteenth Amendment ostensibly provided women the right to vote, access to the ballot was not equal. Because many Black, indigenous, women of color remained disenfranchised, this presentation will place women’s suffrage in conversation with the broader movement toward civil rights for Black, indigenous, people of color. Invited national scholars Liette Gidlow and Allison Lange will join Sophia Brewer and Jo Ellyn Clarey from the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council to explore diverse women’s efforts to secure the vote.
Register at this web address: https://www.ggrwhc.org/event/solidarities-white-women-and-women-of-colors-activism-to-secure-the-vote/

The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans
2021-03-04 19:00 - 20:00 | Virtual Event
Join author Catherine Grace Katz for a virtual discussion on her book about Kathleen Harriman, a champion skier, war correspondent, and daughter of US Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman; Sarah Churchill, an actress-turned-RAF officer, whose father Winston depended on her astute political mind; and Anna Roosevelt, chosen instead of her mother Eleanor to accompany the president to Yalta. Anna was the keeper of her father’s most damaging secrets. Situated in the political maelstrom that marked the transition to a post-war world, this is a remarkable untold story of the three intelligent young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference in February 1945–and of the conference’s fateful reverberations in the waning days of World War II.

History Skills Workshops - HSM
2021-03-05 09:00 - 16:00 | Virtual Event
Join The Historical Society of Michigan for two different workshops on Friday, March 5th.

“Communicating the Tale: Writing Your History Article”
From 9am to 12pm Roger Gilles of Grand Valley State University will cover creating an article—from finding the right venue and sending a query letter to submitting the finished article and working with editors. The speaker will also discuss establishing a clear focus and structure, using headings effectively, citing sources smoothly and accurately, and achieving a professional level of style and polish.

“Sharing the Tale: Publishing Your History Book”
From 1pm – 4pm Catherine Cocks of Michigan State University will take you through all the steps of creating a book, including defining the scope, researching and writing, creating financial goals, gathering illustrations, defining the market, printing, and marketing the volume to the public.

Cast Your Vote, The 19th Amendment - Girl Scouts Event
2021-03-06 09:30 - 15:30 | Virtual Event
“Cast Your Vote, The 19th Amendment,” is a virtual program taking place on Saturday, March 6th for Michigan Girls Scouts to learn about the suffrage movement, how voting affects our communities today, and how voting can make a difference in the future. This program is being lead by the Kalamazoo League of Voters and will also feature presentations from Andrea Melvin of the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Michigan Senator Winnie Brinks, and Ruth Stevens of the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council. Follow the link to sign up your Scout to earn the “Caste your Vote” badge or to learn more about the program!

Fair Housing in Grand Rapids: Then and Now
2021-03-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtual Event
This is an event through the Grand Rapids Historical Society.
Where you live has always undeniably determined the opportunities you have access to, including education, employment, health care, transportation, green space, and much more. Where you live also directly impacts how you live – and even your life expectancy. As we come to better understand more about these connections, it seems that the stakes for equal housing opportunity have never been higher. Join Liz Keegan (Fair Housing Center of West Michigan) as she shares a history of the journey for fair housing in greater Grand Rapids. She will also share information on how housing segregation and discriminatory housing policies such as redlining continue to impact us all today.

Rocking Chair Experience XIII
2021-03-13 13:00 - 17:00 | Virtual Event
Join the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs for their 13th annual Rocking Chair Experience!
This year the theme celebrates the women who have fought for the right to vote in the United States. In recognition of the centennial of the 19th Amendment the Rocking Chair Experience will honor women from the original suffrage movement as well as 20th and 21st century women who have continued the struggle to ensure voting rights for all.
This is a virtual event that will be held over Zoom on Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 1:00pm. To attend this event please use the meeting ID number and passcode as listed below.
Meeting ID: 9541976843
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Lesser Known Women in West Michigan History
2021-03-17 10:00 - 11:30 | Virtual Event
Lesser Known Women in West Michigan History
Wednesday, March 17th, 10:00 am – 11:30 am
“Lesser Known Women in West Michigan History,” continues the 12th Annual Kutsche Local History Roundtable during March. Representatives of the Ionia County Historical Society, Lakeshore Museum Center, and Ada Historical Society will highlight West Michigan women whose accomplishments might not be known outside their communities. Their efforts in various industries impacted untold numbers of people and illustrate how women have leveraged their abilities and interests to make change. This panel also reflects commitment to continuing work to preserve the stories of everyday Michiganders.

Grand Rapids Women & Their Work During the Great War
2021-03-24 10:00 - 11:00 | Virtual Event
“Grand Rapids Women & Their Work During the Great War,” ends the 12th Annual Kutsche Local History Roundtable during March. The Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council’s Katelyn Bosch VerMerris will examine both the paid labor and volunteer contributions of women in Grand Rapids during WWI. Utilizing rich primary sources, this presentation will provide a singular look at women’s desires as well as their actual navigation of the war industry. Women used the upheaval of wartime to balance their work as citizens—they organized a home defense and contributed to wartime industries–but they also used the emergency to advance their personal training and implement their own goals.

GR Time Traveler Series: A Decade of Upheaval
2021-03-26 10:30 - 12:30 | Virtual Event
A Decade of Upheaval: Grand Rapids Women and Public Office in the 1910s will take us back to a heady decade when Grand Rapids women in increasing numbers stepped onto the public stage. Women had long participated in civic affairs and could even run for elective office before the Nineteenth Amendment took effect in 1920. But, suddenly in Michigan after November 1918, the state’s women could run for anything—and they did. Grand Rapids women advanced beyond earlier races limited to school board seats and competed for City Comptroller of Grand Rapids, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and, eventually, for national office. During the 1910s, which began in peace and prosperity but ended in war and pandemic, Grand Rapids women sophisticated their political game, claimed party affiliations, and carried their visions and concerns into public office.

This free, virtual program by the GGRWHC’s Jo Ellyn Clarey is sponsored by the Grand Rapids Time Traveler Series of GVSU’s Kutsche Office of Local History. Register here: https://www.gvsu.edu/brooks/module-events-view.htm?siteModuleId=75DD7655-A450-DCC5-37EC4FF9F955F3DD&eventId=7D221E66-E31B-42A9-85A4530A10F25BD8

Women Who Ran! Seeking Public Office Before the Nineteenth Amendment
2021-03-31 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtual Event
Hats off to the trailblazing women of Grand Rapids! Decades before the Nineteenth Amendment granted American women the right to vote, many had led serious political lives and even run for office. In fact, before the certification of the federal amendment in 1920, 47 different Grand Rapids women had run 82 campaigns for public office between 1887 and 1920. In 1919 and 1920 alone, they ran for Grand Rapids City Commission, the Michigan State Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives—as well as City Comptroller and State Superintendent of Public Instruction! Celebrating Women’s History Month 2021, the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council has launched a new web page, Women Who Ran! (https://www.ggrwhc.org/women-who-ran/) Find out who ran for what when–and check out political biographies and data that can be searched alphabetically, chronologically, by political office, occupation, marital status, reform activity, and party affiliation. Ever heard of the Farmer-Labor Party? Tune in!

This free, virtual program by the GGRWHC’s Jo Ellyn Clarey is sponsored by East Grand Rapids Branch/Kent District Library. To register: https://kdl.org/livestream/?_ga=2.209872022.2023314695.1614020516-99878386.1614020516

Earth Day 2021
2021-04-22 08:00 - 23:30 | Virtual Event
On this 51st Earth Day we are remembering and celebrating the life and work of environmentalist Joan Luedders Wolfe who founded West Michigan Environmental Action Council in 1968 and was the first woman appointed to the Natural Resources Commission in 1973. Her work with WMEAC still impacts conservation efforts in Michigan today. Legislature such as the 1972 Inland Lakes and Streams Act, which continues to protect Michigan’s inland waterways from development and contamination and was made possible through the hard work of WMEAC under Wolfe’s leadership. Wolfe passed away on January 23, 2021, but leaves behind a legacy of trailblazing environmentalism. Learn more about her life and work in this recent WMEAC article.

GGRWHC Virtual Annual Meeting
2021-05-10 17:30 - 18:00 | Virtual Event
Join us on Zoom for our Virtual Annual Meeting on May 10th from 5:30pm – 6:00pm for organizational news and planning.
Dial-in number: 1(312)626-6799
Meeting ID: 99376667258
Renew or become a member now and participate in the election of this year’s board nominees!
