OHIO Libraries Celebrates the Centennial Anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

This year, there is excitement in the air in honor of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Constitutional Amendment to grant women the right to vote. Winning that right involved thousands of American women lobbying for what many Americans considered a fundamental change in the Constitution. 

In honor of this hard-won victory, a series of exhibits, presentations, films and special events are being held by Ohio University Libraries— in collaboration with the OHIO departments of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies; English; History and Film; as well as the Honors Tutorial College; OHIO Museum Complex; Contemporary History Institute; Center for Campus and Engagement; Black Student Cultural Programming Board; Margaret Boyd Scholars; Multicultural Center; Women’s Center; and the Athena Theater. 

Here is a small list of celebratory events beginning in January and ending in May 2020:   

Jan. 15 through May 1, 2020
Exhibit: Women Pioneers, Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage 
The display uses historical materials to highlight key women and moments in the movement through time and place, including here in Ohio 

• Fourth floor/Alden Library

Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
Film: SELMA
The film “…chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.”

• Athena Theater

Feb. 3 from 4 to 5:00 p.m.
Talk & Tour of Women Pioneers’ Exhibit
The discussion and tour will be led by Harmony Renn and Saraya Abner, student researcher-curators of the exhibit. 

• Fourth floor/Alden Library

Feb. 19 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Authors @Alden with Sara Egge
Join us for a conversation between Sara Egge, associate professor of history at Centre College, and  Katherine Jellison, OHIO professor and chair in history, discussing Egge’s book, “Woman Suffrage and Citizenship in the Midwest.” 

• Fourth floor/Alden Library

Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.
Film: MANKILLER
The film focuses on “…[Wilma] Mankiller’s leadership [role, which] enabled the Cherokee Nation to become one of the most economically and culturally successful tribes in America.”

• Athena Theater

Mar. 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Women Fight for the Vote: Transcription-A-Thon of Library of Congress documents 
Come and go as you please to help us “…transcribe documents from throughout the women’s suffrage movement so that documents may be easily searched and accessed by contemporary readers.”

• Fifth floor/Voinovich Room 513 /Alden Library

Mar. 24 at 7 p.m.
Film: SUFFRAGETTE
The film highlights “…a working wife and mother whose life is forever changed when she is secretly recruited to join the U.K.’s growing suffragette movement.”

• Athena Theater

Modernizing Your Suffrage Sash 
A hands-on craft session, “…participants may modernize a suffrage sash to represent their affiliation with current political or social movements.”

• Mar. 24  from 4 to 6 p.m./Women’s Center
• Apr. 4 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m./ Friends Room319/Alden Library

Apr. 6-26
Exhibit: Ohio Women Vote: 100 Years of Change
“This Ohio History Connection special traveling exhibit will examine and celebrate the path taken by Ohio women to achieve the right to vote.”

• Fourth floor/Alden Library

Mar. 24 at 7 p.m.
Film: IRON JAWED ANGELS
This film examines “…an American feminist who risked her life to fight for women’s citizenship and the right to vote. She [later]founded the separatist National Woman’s Party.”

• Athena Theater