Gold pen

Creating Icons

How We Remember Woman Suffrage

Closed January 2, 2022
Online

Spanning the early days of the woman suffrage movement through to the present-day fights for women’s rights, Creating Icons: How We Remember Woman Suffrage shared stories of the fight to get women the vote. Some of the activists highlighted here were upheld in the history of the movement; others were excluded. Together their stories reveal a history that goes beyond who can cast a ballot to examine the impact of who we uplift as icons and how we remember as a nation.

More than 60 artifacts, including busts of suffrage leaders and a six-foot-tall portrait of Susan B. Anthony, were joined by contemporary collections, including campaign ephemera from all 131 women sitting in Congress at the time the nation recognized the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

This exhibition is made possible through support from Robert and Lynne Uhler; Ted and Marian Craver; Mrs. Kathleen Manatt and Michele A. Manatt; Sandy, Cindy, Hayden, Thea, Sabrina and William Sigal; Smithsonian Women's Committee; Diane Spry Straker; Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman and Mrs. Eugenia L. Taubman; and Ms. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.