Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council

Susan B. Anthony Brings the National American Woman Suffrage Association to Grand Rapids
2020-03-12 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | 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.

GGRWHC Annual Reception!
2019-03-27 17:00 - 19:00 | John F. Donnelly Conference Center at Aquinas College
Then & Now: The 2018 Completion of a 1918 Collection
Join us for our signature women’s history month event – the GGRWHC reception and brief annual meeting! Mingle with friends new and old during our cocktail hour, get an update on our year-in-review, and stay to learn about and celebrate the work behind the now-digitized Kent County collection of WWI Council of National Defense women’s registration cards. It is truly a one of a kind! Let us know you plan to attend! Click here to RSVP!

Second Line of Defense: Grand Rapids Women and the Great War
2019-03-21 13:00 - 14:00 | Lowell Area Historical Museum
You have another chance to catch this program and its tremendous visuals! World War I had a surprising impact on women and they, in turn, had tremendous impact on the war — far greater than is generally known. This program will tell the story of American women as citizens during the largest wartime mobilization of our young country and dispel myths that women’s lives were led only in their homes. Upon U.S. entry into the war in 1917, women’s groups across the nation transformed their organizational structures for war work. Led by the Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense, they made contributions that ranged far beyond the war and their traditional gender roles and addressed the nation’s failure to assess serious food, health, and labor problems suddenly compromising national security when a huge percentage of American men failed military physicals. Focusing on West Michigan women a hundred years ago, the program illustrates how they were among midwestern leaders whose pioneering efforts have been too long neglected. Get ahead of history — credit them by joining us in Lowell!

"INTELLIGENT SAINTS": THE BENEVOLENT ORIGINS OF HOSPITALS AND NURSING IN GRAND RAPIDS
2019-02-20 15:30 - 17:00 | Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Known for its thriving medical institutions, it may surprise many that the very existence of a medical field in Grand Rapids is the result of the efforts of three different groups of charitable nineteenth-century women. Founders and leaders of medical charities in this city’s early history, these women were gradually pushed from the center of their organizations to the more feminine task of founding nursing schools. Recovering this forgotten past reveals a history in which women utilized, were limited by, pushed against, and ultimately expanded the evolving ideas about gender that continuously mediated their presence in Grand Rapids’s developing medical field.
About the speaker
Julia Bouwkamp is a recent history graduate of Calvin College. She has put her degree to use as a historical interpreter at Fort Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City, as an AmeriCorps VISTA member working in historic preservation, and as a researcher and archivist with both the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council and Froebel USA. Bouwkamp is applying to graduate programs in material culture and public history.

History Detectives: Sleuthing for Local History
2019-01-19 09:00 - 16:00 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
A day-long event made up of six programs exploring various aspects of Grand Rapids history. Presented by area historians and members of historical and cultural organizations, topics are varied and reflect the unique heritage of West Michigan. Topics include:

Lawrence C. Earle is Grand Rapids’ First Artist

African American Women in Turn-of-the-Twentieth Century Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids and the Holocaust

Evening Entertainment in Grand Rapids, 1940-1970

School Gardening Programs in Progressive Era Grand Rapids

WWII: When Patriotism Was the Norm

Bring Your Ancestors to Life with Archival Resources
2018-12-01 13:30 - 15:00 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
Discover how to use archival collections to go beyond basic facts and dates and learn more about who your ancestors were. Julie Tabberer will illustrate how to think creatively and find primary sources that may contain unexpected information. Archives hold unique and rich material that can be particularly helpful for researching women and people of color. Using the library’s archives, Julie will give you tips and guidelines for using archival records for genealogy research in any geographic area. This program is co-sponsored by the Western Michigan Genealogical Society.

Elaine Weiss - The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
2018-11-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
The nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history; the fight to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman’s Hour is an 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.

THE SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE: GRAND RAPIDS WOMEN AND THE GREAT WAR
2018-11-14 15:30 - 17:00 | Meeter Center Lecture Hall
Calvin College History Colloquium! 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!

Janet Sheeres: The Wives (and Lives) of Early Dutch Pastors
2018-11-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
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 recognized a worthy historical subject! She has been in the business of finding the remarkable in seemingly ordinary women, their stories virtually always sidelined in early historical records. From lists of births, she has illustrated the lives of early Dutch midwives; from shipping indexes, created pictures of single women immigrants crossing the Atlantic on their own. Now she has turned her attention to pastors’ wives, a group of women whom no one else has thought to consider.

The biographies of early male ministers have been well documented. Rescuing their wives from obscurity in her new book, For Better, For Worse , Sheeres proves they were important community builders in their own right, and highlights their living conditions and the challenges they faced. Her fascinating slides will also make visible aspects of their lives and give us another angle on nineteenth-century area history.

Kent County Women and WWI's Home Front Defense
2018-10-29 18:00 - 19:00 | Kent District Library – Cascade Branch
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 look at history-making in process!

Educator Event: From Suffragists to Senators
2018-10-25 08:30 - 16:30 | Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
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 a look back at the evolution of women’s leadership in this country over the last century, participants will hear from prominent women leaders in Michigan about their experiences, challenges, and advice for young women. During the workshop presented by the Center for American Women and Politics, attendees will learn strategies and activities designed to make women’s leadership visible in the classroom and to develop leadership skills in their own students.
Light breakfast and lunch included; Educators may apply for 5 SCECH hours ($6 fee for SCECH hours). Please note: This event is free but space is limited and registration is required, please click the link to register (responding to the Facebook event will not register you!)

Lisa McCubbin - Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer
2018-09-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
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 admired and influential women of our time.

Diana Barrett - WWI Women's Cards
2018-09-08 13:30 - 14:30 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
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 used nationally. Unlike the male WWI registration cards, those from the women’s nationwide registration are a data-rich resource. The men’s cards were saved; the women’s cards disappeared. Grand Rapids, however, had discovered a collection of 20,000 cards housed in the Library’s attic. Since that time, due to excellent research by genealogists and other interested researchers, many new sources of cards, and new information has been discovered beyond Grand Rapids and Michigan.

Susan B. Anthony Slept Here! National Suffrage Strategy & 1899 West Michigan
2018-08-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Holland Museum, 31 W. 10th Street, Holland, MI, 49423, United States
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 the late-nineteenth-century meeting, explain “why West Michigan,” and tell the story of the recovery of this significant piece of area women’s history. Jo Ellyn will introduce descendants of Emily Burton Ketcham, who have donated archival materials.
This is a free event, but donations are always appreciated.

Observance of Women's Equality Day
2018-08-23
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.

Beyond Her Grave Bicycle Tour: The Legacies of Women Buried in Fulton Street and Oakhill Cemeteries
2018-08-18 11:00 - 12:30, 2018-08-14 18:00 - 19:30 | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
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.
