Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council

Reading into Suffrage History
2020-09-16 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
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

DEMOCRACY 101: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Voting Rights
2020-09-16 18:00 - 20:00
*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!

Generating Resources: Indexing an Army of Women
2020-09-12 13:30 - 15:00
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.

GGRWHC Centennial Blow-Out at St. Cecilia! [POSTPONED]
2020-08-26 19:00 - 21:30
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!

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

Relax at Rosa with the GGRWHC!
2020-08-20 12:00 - 13:30
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!

Saugatuck-Douglas History Center – Tuesday Talks, “Getting the Vote: Michigan Women and the Path to Suffrage,”
2020-07-28 11:00 - 12:30
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!

Emily Burton Ketcham Graveside Event on Her Birth Date in 1838
2020-07-16 19:00 - 20:00
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

Hollyhock Lane Parade
2020-07-04 08:00 - 09:30

CANCELED - Sixth Annual Midwestern History Association conference at GVSU
2020-05-12 - 2020-05-13
GGRWHC panel: “Between ‘Suffragette’ Noise and Silent Stunts: Suffrage Print Culture in the Last Decade,” Melissa Fox, Ruth Van Stee, Katelyn VerMerris (Sophia Brewer, chair), Sixth Annual Midwestern History Association conference, GVSU Hauenstein Center at DeVos Center, Free & open to the public. Stay tuned for more detail.

POSTPONED - Susan B. Anthony Slept Here! National Suffrage Strategy & 1899 West Michigan
2020-05-07 19:00
“Susan B. Anthony Slept Here! National Suffrage Strategy & 1899 West Michigan,” Jo Ellyn Clarey, 7:00 pm, Rockford Area Historical Society, Rockford Community Cabin, 220 N. Monroe St, Rockford. Free & open to the public

POSTPONED - Remnants of History: A Tour of Suffrage Artifacts at the Grand Rapids Public Museum
2020-04-16 13:00 - 14:30 | Grand Rapids Public Museum
GGRWHC’s Julia Bouwkamp, 1:00 pm & 6:00pm. Community Archives and Research Center (CARC) 223 Washington St SE, Grand Rapids. To register, please RSVP at info@ggrwhc.org or 616-574-7307; numbers will be limited. See actual objects from the movement: pennants, buttons, convention ribbons, posters, a touring carpet bag, and suffragist dresses!

CANCELED - Kent County Women and WWI Home Front Defense
2020-04-02 19:00 - 20:30
Melissa Fox will present this program for the Rockford Area Historical Society at the Community Cabin. Upon U.S. entry into WWI, national women’s groups transformed their organizational structures for war work. Grand Rapids women were among midwestern leaders whose pioneering efforts have been too long neglected. Get ahead of history–credit them!

POSTPONED - Athena Legacy Tour: The Women Who Built Grand Rapids
2020-03-26 16:30 - 19:00
Join the Grand Rapids Chamber and Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. for the ATHENA Legacy Tour! Led by the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, this bus tour will explore and celebrate the legacies of the women who built Grand Rapids.

Click here to register!

CANCELED - Kutsche Office Roundtable
2020-03-26
Women Changemakers, GVSU Kutsche Office Roundtable – 11:30 am, “A New Digital Exhibit on Women’s Suffrage in Grand Rapids,” GGRWHC’s Julia Bouwkamp; & 1:15 pm, “It Took a Family: Domestic Roles and the Civic Engagement of Alde Blake,” Blake descendants Moana Kutsche & Robert McArdle, with GGRWHC’s Jo Ellyn Clarey, GVSU Kirkhof Center, R. 2204, Allendale. For the full schedule from 8:30 am – 3:45 pm and to register (free) through March 19th, see https://www.gvsu.edu/kutsche/annual-local-history-roundtable-11.htm

POSTPONED - GGRWHC Annual Meeting & Reception
2020-03-25 17:00 - 19:00 | John F. Donnelly Conference Center at Aquinas College
GGRWHC annual reception and “Suffrage Sampler: Celebrating the Centennial of the 19th Amendment,” 5:00 – 6:45 pm, Donnelly Center (157 Woodward Lane SE), Aquinas College. Hors d’oeuvres & wine; Free & open to the public. (Please RSVP at info@ggrwhc.org or 616-574-7307) Mingle with friends and lift a glass for the centennial of the 19th Amendment, the constitutional guarantee of universal suffrage!

Susan B. Anthony Brings the National American Woman Suffrage Association to Grand Rapids
2020-03-12 13:00 - 14:00 | Lowell Area Historical Museum
Melissa Fox will present at the Lowell Area Historical Museum & Friends of the Englehardt Library in Lowell. Susan B. Anthony visited West Michigan many times beginning in 1873. Her last appearance was at the 1899 NAWSA convention held at the St. Cecilia Music Society, the only time it ever met in Michigan.

Takeover! Grand Rapids Suffragists and the 1914 Grand Rapids Press
2020-02-04 18:30 - 20:00 | Kent District Library – East Grand Rapids
When setting goals for 1914, the National Equal Suffrage Association called for rallies, participation in parades, and the take over of local newspapers for a day across the country to argue for the cause. The Grand Rapids Equal Suffrage Association met this challenge by editing and producing the edition of May 2, 1914 issue of the Grand Rapids Press, and holding a rally in Veterans Park on that afternoon. Ruth Van Stee will talk about the edition itself, the local women involved, and how these local events fit intothe national suffrage movement. One of the original newspapers of the day will be on display that evening for viewing.

History Detectives
2020-01-18 09:30 - 16:00 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
One day, six programs! Join us at 11:30am for the GGRWHC sponsored program,”CENTENNIAL 2020! Grand Rapids, Suffrage City,” presented by Julia Bouwkamp & Jo Ellyn Clarey – or stay for the whole day! History Detectives always has a range of programs to offer local history fans, and this year is no different! Visit the History Detectives webpage at: https://subjectguides.grcc.edu/HistoryDetectives for all the details – including how to reserve a boxed lunch!

Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame Inductions
2019-11-07 17:30 - 21:00
This event takes place at the TCF Center, Detroit.
Visit Michigan Women Forward for more information about the event and the 2019 inductees: https://miwf.org/event/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame-induction-ceremony/

Getting the Vote: A History of Women’s Suffrage in Michigan
2019-11-06 18:30
This program will be presented by Ruth Stevens at the Dowagiac Area History Museum

From Managerial Void to the Medical Mile: The Evolving Roles of Women and the Enduring Presence of History
2019-10-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
Fleshing out the history of women founders of early Grand Rapids medical institutions, GGRWHC’s Julia Bouwkamp will reveal a pattern where they were pushed from the centers of organizations they had created to the more feminine realm of nursing. Despite their marginalization, these nineteenth-century women exploited limiting ideas about gender to continue the expansion and sophistication of our medical world.
Co-sponsored by the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, the Grand Rapids Historical Society, & the Grand Rapids Public Library

Grand Rapids Women Architects 1920s-1970s
2019-10-05 13:00 - 15:30
Join the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council and architectural researcher Pamela VanderPloeg (grandrapidsbuildings.com) on Saturday, October 5 for a presentation and walking tour on Grand Rapids female architects and their influence on homes and neighborhoods, both locally and nationally, from 1920-1970. We will meet at 1pm in the beautiful Gothic-designed Klise Memorial Chapel at East Congregational Church at 1005 Giddings SE. The presentation will be followed by a 90-minute guided walking tour of the Ottawa Hills and adjacent East Grand Rapids streets where several 1920s era homes are attributed to women architects. Tour participants will enjoy a look at the interior of these lovely historic homes that highlight the aesthetically pleasing and efficient designs of these talented female architects. Registration is required for this free event. Click here to register!

Women Trailblazers: Celebrating 100 Years of Women's Suffrage in Germany and the U.S.
2019-09-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Wege Ballroom at Aquinas College, 1700 Fulton St. E
The Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council will join a collaborative event featuring representatives from academics, the community, and the German Embassy. A panel discussion will highlight milestones in women’s history before and after suffrage was achieved in Germany and the United States. There will also be a poster exhibition on the German suffrage movement. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.

Maya Lin & Melanie Daniel at the Grand Rapids Art Museum
2019-09-05 18:30 - 20:00 | Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center
Melanie Daniel (Canadian, b.1972)Sharing (detail) 2018Oil on Canvas
Learn more about these women artists during a docent led tour at the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM). Join the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council for an evening of art at GRAM. One of GRAM’s docents will guide us through the gallery featuring Maya Lin: Flow , an exhibition of recent large-scale sculptures by this renown artist. In the adjacent gallery we will see and hear about works by Michigan artist, Melanie Daniel. This exhibition is filled with bold, colorful works exploring humankind’s relationship with the natural world.
Please arrive through the Monroe Center entrance and proceed to the front desk where you will be greeted by Susan Coombes of GRAM and GGRWHC. Parking is available in nearby lots – Ellis Parking on Monroe Center, city ramps with entrances on Ionia or Ottawa; in street parking is also available.

Equality Day
2019-08-26

Equality Day at Rosa Parks Circle
2019-08-22 12:00 - 13:30
United States suffragists persisted for over 70 years and four generations organizing referenda, circulating countless petitions, and giving speeches, even though they were frequently harassed and ridiculed just because they wanted the right to vote. Finally on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment guaranteeing universal suffrage became the law of the land.

In order to honor the women and men who kept up the non-violent fight for a woman’s right to vote, Congress passed a resolution declaring August 26 as Equality Day. Proposed by Rep. Bella Abzug in 1971, it was passed in 1973 and since then presidents have issued a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920.

GGRWHC will honor Equality Day and Grand Rapids activists near the food trucks on the GRAM patio where we will have photos and handouts about the local movement.

Hollyhock Lane Parade
2019-07-04 08:00 - 10:00
Back by popular demand, the GGRWHC will take to the streets to honor parading suffragists from a hundred years ago. Meet us at the corner of Calvin and Alexander at 8am & join the fun with bands, bicyclists, candy, and placards! To quote a past participant: this event is “oddly exhilarating”!

Fifth Annual Midwestern History Conference
2019-05-30 08:00 - 2019-05-31 17:00 | Ralph W. Hauenstein Center, GVSU downton campus
Once again we will present at the MHA Conference. Admission is free, open to the public, and includes a complimentary lunch on both days – click here to RSVP. Our programs this year conclude a three-year GGRWHC project illustrating women’s initiatives to register women for work during WWI and to create a home defense. Most American historians know little of this history beyond the old saw that women’s patriotism during WWI led to the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Look for our two panels:

Thursday, May 30 at 10:30 a.m.: “Problematic Coalitions and Competing Interests: WWI-Era Women and Wartime Labor” looks at women entering the industrial work force during WWI. Industrial burdens increased as fewer men were available for factory positions; and once again midwestern women, who were already national leaders in Progressive Era reform movements, stepped up to play a leading role. This panel will study women already in factories when the war began, then how the successes and failures of Woman’s Committee reform efforts affected them as the war proceeded.
Friday, May 31 at 2:45 p.m.: “Buried Treasure: The WWI Registration of American Women for War Work” will focus on the WWI Woman’s Committee efforts in 1918 to profile and number the women available for war work as a basis for moving ahead its other projects; the 2018 creation of a powerful, searchable database for the largest known collection in Grand Rapids; and the ongoing search for more cards to illustrate how the previous experiences of midwestern women leaders helped them shape such successful strategies that their registration work became the national model.

"The Abandoned Bride" - A Documentary
2019-04-06 13:30 - 15:00 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
Twenty years after their Grandfather Del Havens died, sisters Lynne Doele and Dr. Deb Havens discovered a secret that stunned their entire family: a box of pictures and post cards from their grandfather’s post–World War I service in Europe. Among them were sad messages from a mysterious woman named Dora Gallner, claiming to be his abandoned bride. All the postcards she had written to the sisters’ Great Grandmother Grace, Del’s mother, seemed to support Dora’s claim. But if that were true, if he had left her behind, truly abandoned Dora, it was unforgivable— the act of a man the family didn’t recognize. The two sisters traveled to Germany, Austria and Switzerland to search for Dora Gallner… and uncovered her tragic
story.
“The Abandoned Bride” documents the dramatic tale as the sisters traced the clues they found in Del’s personal papers and photographs to conduct

historically–based genealogical research.
