Media Advisory: Press Preview for "Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence"

Media only:         Concetta Duncan  (202) 633-9989, duncanc@si.edu

                             Karen Vidángos    (202) 633-2585, vidangosk@si.edu

Media website:    newsdesk.si.edu

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#BecauseOfHerStory

Media Advisory

WHAT:          Press preview for “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence”

WHEN:          Wednesday, March 27

                      10–11:30 a.m.

WHERE:       Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

                      Eighth and G streets N.W.

WHO:            Kate Clarke Lemay, historian at the National Portrait Gallery and coordinating curator of the Smithsonian                                           American Women’s History Initiative

The National Portrait Gallery announces “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence,” a major exhibition examining the history of women’s suffrage in the United States opening March 29. The seven-room exhibition will feature more than 120 portraits and objects spanning 1832 to 1965 that explore the American suffrage movement and the political challenges women have faced. The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 5, 2020.

“Votes for Women” will outline the more than 80-year movement for women to obtain the right to vote as part of a larger struggle for equality that continued through the 1965 Civil Rights Act and arguably still lingers today. Presented will be portraits of the movement’s pioneers, notably Susan B. Anthony and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, and 1848 Seneca Falls participants, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone. The exhibition will also shed light on the racial struggles of the suffrage movement and how African American women organized for citizenship rights with portraits of influencers, including Sarah Remond, Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell.

“Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence” is a centerpiece of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, “Because of Her Story.”