Votes for Women: Hennepin County

Curated by Jacqueline deVries and students in the Augsburg University History Department, in partnership with the Hennepin History Museum

August 2020 marks the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in the United States. As national celebrations commemorate the fight for women’s right to vote in this country, we invite you to explore the local movement in Hennepin County.

Building on the "Votes for Women" exhibit at the Hennepin History Museum, this tour invites you to walk in the footsteps of local women activists and reformers over a hundred years ago. You'll see glimpses of their world, their challenges, their values.

You'll meet many of the women and men who fought for the rights of citizenship. The tour also encourages you to consider the ways that the women’s suffrage movement fell short in the quest for a fully inclusive movement. We hope this sparks conversation about our current struggles for justice.

Each stop includes photos. Please click on those and read the captions, which add to and deepen the story.

Research for this tour was begun in Summer 2019 with Alyssa Thiede, Curator, Hennepin History Museum; and Augsburg students, Hannah Dyson and Matthew Glavan.

In Spring 2020, six additional Augsburg University students in HIS 331 persisted during the Covid shut-down to dig up fascinating materials. Thanks to Grant Berg, Brendan Descamps, Jackson Gerber, A. J. Hanson, Ashley Heikkila, and Indy Weisman for their contributions. Sophie Hunt, Director of HHM's Public Programs, provided invaluable support and guidance.

We look forward to offering in-person tours of all these sites when it's safe again.

Jacqueline R. deVries, Professor of History, Augsburg University

August 2020

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