Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence

To usher in the centennial anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, “Votes for Women: An American Awakening, 1840–1920” reveals the women and organizations often overlooked in the complex narrative of women’s suffrage in the United States. Through portraiture, biography, and material culture, the exhibition examines the contributions of the radical women in antislavery societies; women activists of the late nineteenth century; the “New Woman” of the turn of the century; and the militant suffragists of the 1910s. This presentation also highlights the struggles that minority women endured long after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. The exhibition is curated by Kate C. Lemay, historian and director of Portal, Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center, National Portrait Gallery.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website