Today's DAR
In October 2020, the Museum of the American Revolution opened When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807. This exciting new exhibit features groundbreaking evidence of both women and free people of African descent voting in New Jersey elections well before the passage of either the 15th or 19th Amendments. Here on this blog, curatorial fellow and exhibit co-curator Marcela Micucci highlighted some of the finds that the NSDAR’s generous $25,000 grant allowed the Museum to research, locate, and feature in the exhibition, including a miniature of New Jersey voter Martha Githens, and a neoclassical muslin dress loaned by the DAR Museum and likely worn by Eleanor Armstrong. If these whet your appetite, but you haven’t yet been able to make it to Philadelphia, don’t despair! The exhibition remains on display until April 25, 2021.
New Online Features for the Museum of the American Revolution’s “When Women Lost the Vote” Exhibit
But what if you will not be able to make it to the Museum before When Women Lost the Vote ends its run? All is not lost! A new, online exhibition now accompanies the in-museum display, and will remain an evergreen resource for digital explorers, students, and teachers indefinitely. Divided into four thematic sections that match the in-museum narrative, this online exhibition features high quality images of the documents and artifacts found on display in the Museum and roots them in the dynamic local and national context of this revolutionary story. The online exhibition even features multiple enhancements, including object-exploration videos with co-curator Marcella Micucci and special guests, and first-person performances highlighting two women who grabbed onto, or wrestled with, ideas of Revolution with both hands: Elizabeth Freeman and Rebecca VanDike. This online offering will continue to grow and expand: interviews with prominent women’s historians of the Revolutionary Era are soon to come, as is a Teacher Resource Guide to accompany the evergreen exhibit. A Family Guide – created to accompany the in-gallery exhibit – is already available.
One new and exciting feature you won’t need to wait for is the online exhibition’s accompanying Poll List Interactive. In researching for When Women Lost the Vote, Museum curators located 18 poll lists from the state of New Jersey for the time between 1776, when New Jersey wrote its first state constitution, which allowed women and free people of color to vote, and 1807, when the New Jersey legislature took this ability away. Of these 18 poll lists, 9 included women, totaling 163 female voters more than a century before the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The world should know their names, and through this interactive, now they can. Not only does the Poll List Interactive allow you to explore each of the relevant poll lists for women voters (and voters of African descent, who so far appear to be all male), through short thematic essays, you can explore the conditions under which they voted, and you can even learn more about the individual voters, including, perhaps, images of their homes, places where they voted, or even video visits to their gravesites.
To research each voter individually, of course, would take more time than Museum staff are able to give, but that is where the public – and your – help is desired! Researchers are encouraged to explore the poll lists and contribute your own research on these women, to potentially be included in the interactive over time
We hope this exhibit inspires ongoing research, ongoing learning, and ongoing engagement. It’s already inspired something quite unexpected: a new piece of choral music, inspired by Abigail Adams’ famous “remember the ladies” letter to her husband John Adams! Acclaimed contemporary composer Dr. Melissa Dunphy has interpreted Adams’ words for our current moment, and this powerful new piece will have its world premiere in a live pay-what-you-wish broadcast by the 40-voice a capella community choir, PhilHarmonia, on Thursday, March 25, 2021.* We hope you will attend!
Many thanks to the NSDAR for your generous support of this exhibition. Your investment served as the catalyst for the research, programming and resources that we are now able to share with the world.
*To reserve your tickets to this event, visit: https://www.amrevmuseum.org/events/remember-the-ladies-the-world-premiere-of-a-new-choral-work-by-dr-melissa-dunphy
To inquire about how your DAR chapter or local school can have an educator-led, virtual experience with WWLTV or of our 360-degree Virtual Museum Tour, call 267-579-3623 or email [email protected] at the Museum of the American Revolution.
Photo credits: Museum of the American Revolution
