>>Hello, and welcome to our Hopkins at home
presentation, Picturing a Movement; Women's
Suffrage Through the Lens of Maps and Ephemera.
Part of the university's women's suffrage
commemoration initiative. My name is Heidi
Herr and I am a special collections librarian
at the Sheraton libraries. As part of the
commemoration initiative, the libraries have
centered their contributions on student engagement,
creating opportunities that include the social
and the scholarly to encourage students to
think critically about America's long road
to women's suffrage and what steps we should
take to value the vote today. Our programs
have included everything from a women's history
themes vintage game night, during which students
played 20th century games. So marketed to
girls and young women, such as Mystery Date
and Barbie; Queen of the Prom, to a student-curated
display of women's suffrage postcards, in
which students explored common themes, stereotypes
and symbols that characterize the lively and
at times combative public debate regarding
women and the vote. This evening, we will
have a conversation with three Hopkins students
who have embarked on interesting and research
intensive projects. First we'll talk with
Ivy Xun, a writing seminars major and a member
of the class of 2023. As part of the library's
freshman fellows program, an academic program
in which freshmen conduct original research
inspired by the university's special collections.
Ivy explored and analyzed books and artifacts
from the universities women's suffered collection.
Then we will chat with graduate students,
Laurel Poolman, and Nandini Dey. Laurel is
a PhD candidate in Near Eastern studies as
an archeologist who has worked at sites in
Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Syria, and Ethiopia.
Her research concerns, the social roles of
animals in the ancient world and the influence
of animals on political life, in the ancient
near East. Nandini is a PhD candidate at a
university department of political science.
Her work focuses on colonialism and citizenship
in South Asia. She earned her bachelor's degree
from the University of Delhi in India and
an MSC in history from the University of Edinburgh
in Scotland. Before moving to Baltimore, Nandini
worked as an editor for the Oxford University
press in New Delhi, India. As you can see,
our student scholars are incredible. Anyway,
this evening promises to be full of interesting
insight on women's suffrage. So let's start
the conversation and we encouraged all of
you at home to be part of the conversation
as well, by submitting your questions and
comments in the chat... on your screen. We
will address them at the end of our student
discussions. Thank you for joining us and
let's start chatting. So welcome Ivy. How
are you doing?
>>I'm doing good. Thank you.
>>So, your research on women's suffrage came
about through your studies in the library's
freshman fellows program. Would you mind telling
us a bit about why you wanted to be in the
program and what was appealing about studying,
studying this movement?
>>Yeah, I think what was particularly appealing
about studying the women's suffrage movement
was its timeliness with the passage of the
19th amendment happening in 1920 granting
women, the right to vote. And then now it
being 2020, exactly a hundred years later.
I also think like particularly this year,
it's a critical election where voting is very
important this year is also the first year
that I was able to vote. And so I really wanted
to study a historical movement that has such
like, firm implications to today. And one
of the first things that I learned in researching
about the women's suffrage movement when I
was applying was the 1913 women's suffrage
parade, which was kind of the first suffrage,
kind of the first big organized March in Washington
DC. And I learned that the, the march was
actually segregated and initially black participants
and black suffragists were not allowed to
participate. And then eventually they were
relegated to the very back of the parade.
And this postcard actually shows and documents
the very front of the 1913 parade. And as
you can see, notably, there are no like women
of color participants. So I was also interested
to study more the role that women of color
played in the woman's American, in the American
women's suffrage movement.
>>Wow. Really interesting. So, it sounds like
working through fellowship was a great opportunity
to learn more about an important social event
it's warts and all. I'm curious though, what
did you know about the history of the movement
prior to your fellowship experience? Like
for instance, when I was in high school, like
we had like 10 minutes and women's suffrage
movement where basically toward women were
patient and got the vote. What was the experience
like?
>>I would say my experience has was very similar.
I don't think there was a lot of like, time
or space dedicated to the women's suffrage
movement in high school and like, in the textbooks.
And I think for me, I had a very similar initial
understanding. Like, I thought it was very
peaceful. I thought some woman's suffragist
marched, and then they lobbied, and then the
19th amendment passed, which I didn't really
understand kind of the nuances of the movement
and just like the varied and diverse groups
that formed, all of a lot of the people that
were involved. And the debates and conversations
that were happening around that time.
>>Yeah. I must admit, my knowledge was about
the English movement and that was purely from
public television. I watched way too many
episodes of masterpiece theater as a child.
So that really warped my perspective. Anyway,
you took on an amazing and timely challenge,
to learn about an exceptionally complicated
multi-decade social movements and there's
just so many narratives and topics you could
follow. So what topics did you ultimately
decide to focus on and why?
>>Yeah. outside of my fellowship, I was actually,
I took a class in the fall semester called
Votes and Petticoats where our class was able
to look at postcards, suffrage postcards from
special collections. And postcards were really
popular like in the early 19 hundreds, people
would trade them and buy them and write letters
on them and different suffrage organizations
and also companies would print postcards to
sell or to fundraise money. And for me, for
my final research project, I focused on the
role of kewpies and children in suffrage postcards.
So these are a few of the postcards that I
looked at. The first one, as you can see is
a kewpie and kewpies were kind of patented
by this artist and suffragist Rose O'Neill.
And as you can see in the postcard, they're
very adorable little creatures. The one in
the postcard is wearing a yellow suffrage
sash and holding up a sign that says votes
for a woman. And the kewpie was really effective
and popular back then. And also, still now
in terms of in the night early 19 hundreds,
in terms of kind of characterizing the suffrage
movement as something that was nonthreatening
and pure and children also played kind of
a similar role in...pro suffrage postcards
as well.
As you can seem like the last three postcards,
they kind of countered representations at
that time. There were a lot of anti-suffrage
political cartoons and images that portrayed
suffragists as like having very masculine
features or being very old or ugly. And so
these images of having children and kewpies
kind of become suffragist and represent suffragist,
made the movement and made suffragists seem
a lot more comforting and made the suffrage
movement seem like something that was natural
and positive. And they also kind of made the
conversation around suffrage more approachable
and less intimidating. So yeah, my focus,
I mean, my research definitely looked into
that and then outs, and something that's really
interesting actually is the last two postcards.
You can see they're kind of the same image,
except just the caption is tweaked. The first
one is an anti suffrage caption that says,
"I've have a dandy hubby who works and votes
for me, I should worry." And then the second
one says, "I want to speak for myself at the
polls." And so companies very interestingly
would create like, very similar postcards
and just swap out the captions in order to
appeal to both pro and anti-suffrage consumers.
And outside of this, outside of the Votes
and Petticoats class, my focus in the fellowship
program was on violence and how ephemera kind
of documented instances of violence committed
by and against suffragists.
>>That's really very interesting. And I just
want to point out on the two postcards that
have the same figure. If you look at the heading,
which says "votes for women" it's votes for
men, the "W" and the "L" are just scratched
out and that's like very subtle and very interesting,
but it's fascinating, like you said, because
it's, shows some businesses knew that these
postcards were profitable. People were buying
these things. They were popular. People were
collecting them, but they didn't want to lose
money. They didn't want to take a political
stand. And that's something that we see companies
do today. This question of how invested should
they be in making stand? Are they worried
about losing business? Are they worried about
ethics? It's really fascinating that these
very issues that happened in the past are
happening today. So thank you... It's just
really incredible.
So, as you were exploring your research topics,
everything ranging from, you know, the innocence
of the kewpie and the young child in suffrage
postcards to, you know, violence, did you
make any unexpected discoveries or find anything
that challenged your perceptions of the movement?
>>Yeah, like, as I mentioned before, I thought
my initial understandings of the women's suffrage
movement was that was that it was very peaceful.
And I didn't, I wasn't aware of kind of the
militant suffrage movement that was happening
in Britain and also in America. I also, wasn't
aware of instances of police brutality between
suffragists and police. And this is on the
left is an image of the suffragist, which
is a periodical. And this particular issue
covered an instance of suffragists who were
peacefully protesting outside of the white
house. And they were then sent to prison.
And this particular issue kind of featured
testimonials from the suffragist that were
in prison, kind of describing the prison conditions
like the prison guards would force feed them
and brutally beat them. And it also featured
advertisements in the periodical that basically
advertise kind of fundraising events and picket
dinners that would raise money in honor, of
these women that were in prisoned. And so
I thought it was really interesting how suffragists
were able to leverage these instances of violence.
Almost like, as propaganda and in order to
make the public sympathize with their cause
and in order to rally more people into the
suffrage movement. And also on the right is
an image of the crisis, which is something
that another unexpected discovery was the
influence of black press in the passage of
the 19th amendment. The crisis is a magazine
that I believe is still running today and
affiliated with the NAACP. And essentially,
it provided a mostly African American audience
with coverage on the suffrage movement and
from both the pro and anti sides and a fun
fact...Kelly Miller, who was the first African
American student that was admitted to Hopkins
actually wrote an essay in the crisis advocating
against women's right to vote. So that was
very interesting and there's definitely a
lot of complexities in terms of race and advocacy
there too.
>>Yeah. And that's correct. I believe that
the editorial stance of the crisis was to
be like, pro-voting rights. So it's interesting
that they gave space to this very kind of
prominent man to voice his concerns over women
voting. Do you happen to know what some of
his concerns were or where they like the concerns
that were similar to what a kind of a mainstream
white anti-suffrage concerns were, or were
they different? Do they have a different perspective?
>>They're actually very similar to kind of
the white mainstream anti-sufferage opinions.
Kelly Miller thought that women shouldn't
have a place in politics because they kind
of belonged in the sphere of the home. So
it was very like, it was a similar perspective
and also something that I forgot to mention,
I believe I found this in the suffragist but
I could have been in another periodical, but
Heidi and I, when we were looking at these
magazines, one of the issues had kind of the
location for where the Maryland headquarters
for the national women's party was. And we
saw that it was on North Charles street. So
we went on Google maps and like, typed in
the address and we found out that to where
once was the Maryland headquarters for the
national women's party is now home to a psychic.
So that's pretty cool.
>>And that isn't, it's in the suffragist.
And yes. I should full disclosure. I served
as Ivy's mentor for her freshman fellows project
and we were hoping to take a spring semester
trip to I think the Charles street psychic
to see if we could commune with past, you
know, Baltimore suffragists, just as a thing
to do as a bonding experience. And unfortunately
we couldn't, it just couldn't happen. Hopefully,
maybe next spring, if the psychic, you know,
market hasn't crashed due to coronavirus.
We'll see. But yes, it's interesting to see
the life of these buildings and to look into...
to follow this addresses and to kind of think
about one day, we might be like, "Oh, that's
a psychic, whatever" but it had this like
strong, like social history behind it. We
just don't think about this all the time when
we're walking around neighborhoods, like just
how important these buildings were to creating
a social movement, especially as social movement
in Baltimore city. So that was just really,
really cool.
>>So, going along with all of this many of
the objects in our suffrage collection were
acquired precisely for this project. So you
really and truly were the very first researcher
to handle and study these items. Would you
mind telling us a little bit about some of
your items in the collection and why they
appeal to you? Why they're important?
>>Yeah. And it's very true. Like I, going
into this fellowship, I didn't know that I
would kind of, it was very cool that I was
one of the first people to like open up these
packages and look at these artifacts and items.
And also it was very interesting, like the
process of like working with you on like buying
items and having like joke feuds with other
exhibits or other places vying for the same
items. So that was definitely an experience.
But one of my favorite items is actually from
the British militant suffrage movement. It's
a game board, it's a game board called Pank-o-Squith.
And what's interesting about it is it has
gained spaces. Sorry. I think it's a side
before this one. Ok, Perfect. What's interesting
about this is it has the game spaces, feature
instances of violence of suffragists smashing
windows or confronting police or woman welcoming
suffragists being kind of being released from
prison and rallying together. And I thought
that was really interesting because for me,
when I was first thinking about researching
like violence and how that was reflected in
ephemera, I was more so thinking about magazines
or newspapers or news articles. And I didn't,
I didn't I wasn't aware that these representations
and framings of violence were used in game
boards. So this one was used as like a fundraising
item for the woman's social and political
union. And I didn't realize that like kind
of these toys and game boards could also feature
violence and leverage it as a way to, again,
increase support for the movement.
>>And I will mention that we have scans of
this game board, we'll share the link with
everyone, but you can download your own copy
of the game. And we're also hoping to send
some copies of this in the mail to people
who have registered for the event tonight.
So you can play Pank-O-Squith for, to help
empower women to vote as if it was 1909. Well
is there anything else that you thought was
really interesting?
>>Yeah. This is a set of playing cards that
was made by the same organization as the game
board the women's social and political union.
And what's interesting about this card set
is that the cards that feature like suffragists
standing up to police gave the players that
played it like bonus, like plus points, and
then other kinds of cards that had more anti
suffrage themes gave the players minus points.
And so it was really interesting to see again
like these representations of violence, not
only in magazines and newspapers, but in more
physical objects and toys. And another like
interesting toy that I discovered were these
like, mini telescopes, where if you look through
them, there were like suffrage different suffrage
leaders that you could see. So that was very
interesting.
>>So regarding these games did you have the
opportunity to play any of these?
>>Yeah, I played during the Votes and Petticoats
class, we all kind of gathered together and
played all these suffrage games and it was,
it's very interesting. Like, learning all
the directions and things.
>>Like where they kind of fun to play or were
they a little bit burdensome? Like...
>>I thought they were kind of fun to play.
A lot of them kind of were variations of popular
games today, like go fish or like other games.
Yeah, it was very fun. I think our class got
kind of competitive, so it was very interesting
to play.
>>And I, like today, what, do you view these
things as being like kind of good learning
tools? So in addition to being entertainment,
do you think these games are an effective
way to get people to think about what it was
like to be a suffragette in England during
those times?
>>Yeah, definitely. I think that, like, they
definitely gave me more context in terms of
the, the images and the instances that were
on these parts. I think, for example, on the
game board, there was a game space that featured
Holloway prison, which was if female prison
in Britain. And that definitely gave me a
lot more context in terms of like violence
in the suffrage movement. And also they have
a lot of relevance today. Like a lot of political
campaigns. I know Bernie Sanders in his presidential
campaign, he had playing cards as merch on
his website. So playing cards are still a
definitely a political tool that is still
relevant today.
>>Very interesting! Anything else that you'd
like to show us like, you know, it's interesting.
>>Yeah. So on the next slide I have a, there's
a pamphlet that is from China. And it features
a revolutionary woman, Qiu Jin, who was it
who advocated against foot binding in China
and advocated for better schooling for woman
in China. And I really love this pamphlet
because, so she was actually eventually executed
by the state. And so the very printing of
this pamphlet, this pamphlet is very underground
and printing it was very risky, so it was
very cool that we have it included in our
collection. And also goes to show how international
women's movements were. This wasn't like a
suffrage movement per se, but women's movements
were just happening in America and Britain
at the time they were happening all over the
world. And then the one on the left is a broadside
that includes a list of all of the black woman
that were in the New Jersey suffrage movement.
And I really love this item because it shows
how women of color were able to create community
events like this one advertises a fair and
bazaar. They were able to create community
events and raise money in order to work towards
their own enfranchisement. And despite obviously
like, challenges and barriers to like, joining
the movement and advocating within the movement.
>>Regarding the pamphlet, is there any evidence
this was purchased in America or like who
owned it prior to it coming to our collection?
>>Yeah, there's actually a stamp, I think,
near the back of the pamphlet from...from
a San Francisco grocer. So that's really cool
because it kind of shows how this ephemera
was like purchased, like kind of traded and
built upon across different areas. And like
even in the women's suffrage movement in America,
a lot of their news, like a lot of their news
articles or books would reference the movements
that were happening in other countries as
an argument for why it should happen in America.
And so they definitely built upon each other.
>>Yeah, it's really incredible because it
also gives us a small window into the political
perspectives of immigrant communities and
their buying habits and everything. So it's
fascinating how you can glean so much from
a piece of ephemera, much like with the, the
women's suffrage association of New Jersey
fair broadside you're showing too, we have
these names of these women who were suffragists,
who contributed to the movement and whose
history is perhaps, in a future research program,
we could maybe reclaim, we could use, we should
try to research who these women were and bring
those stories to light. That's incredible.
Thank you for sharing these objects with us.
Overall it seems that the controversies and
failings and victories associated with the
suffrage movement are so timely today. Has
the time you spent studying the moves that
of English and American suffragist impacted
your perspective when it comes to things like
voting rights or just social movements in
general?
>>Yeah, definitely. I think I'm still learning
how incredibly like unequal the right to vote
is, and the fight for the right to vote, how
that movement played out, even something that
is seen as like very progressive, like the
woman's suffrage movement in America. It was
very much kind of entrenched in like oppressive
structures or other forms of oppression, like
racism or nativism, capitalism. And so, that
has been very interesting and giving me more
context towards social movements and especially
like today with like this year with COVID-19
presenting kind of a barrier to voting and
also different also like the fight for racial
justice, the way that violence has been framed
around that movement in the media has definitely,
is still relevant to today. And like kind
of, again, the themes and the topics that
I explored in the American women's suffrage
movement are all like still relevant to the
social and political movements that are happening
today. And also, this is a link to the Votes
and Petticoats exhibit, if you wanna check
it out and see the work of my classmates in
that class and the postcards that we analyzed.
>>Thank you so much, Ivy. And Ivy will be
sticking around to answer any questions you
may have for her. Now we're going to move
orange to this incredible map, suffrage map
that Laurel, and an MD created. It's really
cool and we'll be debuting it to you tonight.
So welcome. And I just have, I just have to
ask, because I'm curious, what did you both
know about the women's suffrage movement prior
to your work on this map?
>>Hi, Heidi. I can start with this. I want
to start by saying thank you to, to Heidi
and Margaret and the Hopkins at Home team
for having me and Laurel today. It's been
such an eye opening project to be a part of.
Part of why it has been so eye opening it's
because I really started from a blank slate.
I was raised in India and haven't ever really
studied any American history at all. I vaguely
knew that, you know, women's suffrage in the
U S came surprisingly late in a country that
is the oldest democracy in the world. And
of course that, it wasn't only women that
were excluded from votes, you know, citizenship
and democratic practices, but also I arrived
in the U S in 2017 and the post 2016 environment
and so I was very aware of the conversations
around sexism racial justice and, you know,
immigrants. And I think the big takeaway for
me in learning about the suffrage movement
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
was that these conversations aren't 21st century
conversations, you know, they've been happening
for such a long time. And... Ivy and you were
talking about, it's not a monolithic conversation
or a...monolithic movement, excuse me, that
ended with the passage of the 19th amendment,
right? Like that was so much more than that.
And that black women, native American women,
like Ivy also pointed out, were talking about
all of these intersections over a hundred
years ago,
>>Right, Yeah. And I mean, I would say that
my knowledge of the women's suffrage movement
is pretty similar to you know, what you were
saying earlier, Heidi and you, Ivy too, right?
You learn about it in your high school history
class. Women didn't have the right to vote
then sometime in the 18 hundreds, they started
to agitate for it. I remember the Seneca Falls
Convention. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton you know, you remember kind of the
highlights of the names. And then, you know,
in 1920 they got the vote and great that we
got the vote. And, and that was really my
awareness of it, you know, of, of the actual
history. Of course, you know, I had heard
in recent years conversations surrounding,
particularly Susan B. Anthony, you know, and,
and some of the openly racist things that
she said, and, and, you know, how that called
into question you know the exclusionary ways
in which a lot of suffragists kind of carried
out the movement and yeah, fought for the
vote primarily for white women. And often
in reaction to you know, the recent enfranchisement
of black voters. So yeah, I mean, I think
that was like, kind of what I was aware of
before this. But of course in, in doing a
lot of the research for this map I learned
a hell of a lot more yeah, the, the number
of stories here is pretty impressive.
>>So, I do have a question because you both
are coming to this project from different
academic areas of study, political science
and near Eastern archeology. Did your background
impact your investigation of this movement?
>>Yeah, I mean I would say so. Yes. So I think
it's true broadly in the social sciences right
now. You know, there's a lot of talk going
on about macro histories and regional histories.
It's just kind of the, the intellectual trend
I would say. And so I think, you know, coming
from a background in archeology, which is
ultimately a social science you know, there,
I knew that every place had a story and that
there are a whole number of kind of complex
political and economic and cultural factors
that are changing how this movement was able
to function in a, in a lot of different areas.
And in this case, we divided it up by of course
States. You know, and, and this was one of
the big reasons that you saw early suffrage
in the West, for example, right? Because you
ultimately did have you know, essentially
the right cultural setup for it there. And
so yes, I would say that like, kind of my,
my disciplinary background in micro histories
and understanding the various ways in which
so-called monolithic movements function in,
in regional spaces work. You know, and then
I would also say like, as an archeologist,
I'm a little bit like a historian who needs
something tangible, you know, I need, I need
to see a thing. So especially when approaching
this project I know it was very important
to me and then also go to the other people
working on it. So Nandini, but then also Margaret...and
Joshua Everett, that there really be something
visceral attached, these stories. And so in
this case, we decided to map each of our stories
with historical images in order to really
bring history to life in a, in a much more
visceral, tangible way.
>>Yeah. I would also say that my training
in political science, particularly at the,
at my department at Johns Hopkins has taught
me to think very critically about structural
and institutionalized barriers in social and
political life. And these were really very
visible, while studying the suffrage movement
and there are multiple, if not levels, certainly
dimensions of discrimination and obstacles
that women had to overcome. And of course
still have to overcome. There was, of course,
you know... on one side, that was the question
of whether or not women had the right of participation
in democratic politics in the public sphere,
outside their homes. And the women who were
marching and agitating for these rights were
facing not just legal and political barriers,
but also ridicule and condescension from both
the male establishment, but also other women.
And then as we've mentioned before, when the
suffrage did arrive, it came for white women,
largely. Not all women. There were a lot of
barriers to black women voting such as poll
taxes and additional qualifications and white
primaries in different States. Native American
women of course, were not even considered
citizens until the passage of the, the Indian
citizenship act in 1924. So I think being
a political scientist in training and drawing
on my past experience as a student of history
pushed me to question some of these accepted
notions of what constitutes rights and an
exercise of democratic citizenship and trace
the historical contexts of how we got to where
we are today. And I think as we were working
on this, one of the things that has that this
is sort of exposed so clearly is that, of
course the passage of the 19th amendment was
important and absolutely necessary. But we
also know that the simple existence of the
law does not ensure that equality and justice
have been served. Right? And we know this
from conversations about sexism and racial
justice today. Even whether it's about, you
know, the presidential or vice presidential
candidates or ensuring safe climates at universities
or even about conversations around domestic
abuse that have heightened during the pandemic.
>>So, in terms of kind of building a map and
trying to figure out a way to kind of share
these insights and share these stories so
that more people are aware of these issues
and complexities, could you talk a little
bit about the advantages of using maps to
talk about social movements? Like what can
it communicate about, you know, women's suffrage
in particular?
>>Yeah. So I think they're really like two
parts to your question here. So I think mabs
are very useful for mapping social movements
and for mapping history in particular because
space and geography are very kind of powerful
conceptual tools when it comes to thinking
about the world, right? They're intrinsic
into how we think about ourselves and where
we are, and then how we come to think about
other people and other social movements. So
I mean, we all have this kind of intrinsic
sense of space and that has a lot to do with
like our identity and our culture and where
we are. So, yeah, I mean, I think mapping
a social movement in, in accordance with that
conceptual framework does a lot of storytelling
kind of in and of itself. You know, as, as
an example, right, the, the women's suffrage
movement I think Americans, especially modern,
well, modern Americans and, and people who
broadly know of America, we do have a spatial
conception of kind of how the United States
is laid out. And there are a lot of cultural
stories that we tell about that and assumptions
and understandings that we go ahead and impose
on geographical space. So what I found really
interesting are places in which kind of our
cultural narratives and our cultural stories
are not necessarily in line with you know,
the, the history in terms of women's rights
and particularly women's voting rights. You
know, so the example is of course, like the
Northeast, right, the Northeast, we typically
think of as a place that is generally a little
more progressive, you know, it tends to vote
blue a little bit more liberal in terms of
you know, civil rights and things like that.
There were some pretty bad pretty, or let's
say pretty stringent rules that prohibited
women from voting in much of the Northeast.
Right. So, I mean, that's how you had here.
Some of ...these movements, I'm trying to
pull up these images for you if my internet
will cooperate. You know, you did have women
jailed in the Northeast in particular. And,
and again, this is somewhat counterintuitive
to maybe our, our typical modern notions of
the Northeast being this like somehow progressive
space. So yes, I would say that's why, especially
in the case of the women's suffrage movement
a map was very informative and, and I mean,
I hope it will be informative for others.
I, I believe that the link to this has been
put up on the event page. So everyone watching
now should feel free to go ahead and click
on the map and click around even as we're
talking. Yeah. Right.
>>So this map is like really impressive and
like a really cool. What sort of mapping tools
do you use and can just like the average person
out there create something like this themselves?
>>Yeah. So this particular map was made with
arc GIS, online's web mapping tools. It's
actually not that hard to create a, you'd
have to maybe look up a couple of tutorials
online. It's pretty straight forward. What's
great also about like, so arc GIS is something
that is powered by ESRI that all Hopkins affiliates
have access to so Hopkins affiliates, good
news, but people outside the university should
know that there are a number of open source
tools for people who want to create these
kinds of dynamic maps. You know, just off
the top of my head, you have things like HUD-eGIS,
You have Mapbox you know, you can even make
some really impressive maps using coding languages
like Python and R. And I am obligated to put
in a plug for the group that I've been working
for most recently as a GIS and data specialist.
I've been working with the data services team.
We service pretty much everyone at the university
and occasionally outside who want to be using
arc GIS in order to facilitate the research
or present their research in, in this really
kind of dynamic way. So yes, this is a very
accessible program. Yeah, I would definitely
encourage anyone who's interested in making
maps to explore it further. Yeah.
>>Thank you. So we've talked a little bit
about, you know, what you use to create this
and I have a question a bit about the content.
What was the process of coming up with the
content and creating this map? Like, who worked
in it? How did you collaborate to create something
that isn't just interactive, but quite frankly,
very visually engaging.
>>Yeah. So there were four of us worked on
this map, Margaret Burry and Joshua Everett,
who Laurel mentioned earlier at special collections
and the Eisenhower library. We collaborated
over a number of biweekly zoom meetings because,
I at least angered the project I think at
the end of March. So it was after we shut
down. So this has been a pandemic project.
Laurel, of course, created this beautiful
map. And then Margaret was our point person
sort of for the project from the beginning.
And we were all with Josh sort of working
on collecting the data. You know, this is
the raw data about when states ratified and
like finding these images to use. And also
about, you know, who were the leaders of the
movement, what were the campaigns and the
meetings like? And I think so Laurel and I
started having conversations about how the
states had such different trajectories. And
different types, also, of exclusions from
the movements. And very soon I think this
became central to the story that we wanted
to tell. So we spend a lot of time putting
together decades of history for each state
and then condensing it down to a few sentences
that you can, now you can see on the map.
And then separately I became interested in
the actual...the actual women who were overcoming
all kinds of, you know, barriers in fighting
for the right to vote and particularly the
contributions and the support and the actions
of black women and native American women who
not only lend that support, but also actively
campaigned for women's rights, for civil rights,
even though they were, you know, as we've
mentioned before, often ostracized by the
more central mainstream white leaders of the
movement.
And when I told this to Margaret, she readily
agreed that we should, and, you know, a lot
of space and profile these really extremely
courageous women and who are generally sort
of, I think largely now what I also understand
from your, you know, three of your recollection
from a high school history really seen as
being on the margins of the movement. And
so we really wanted to center them and I'm
still walking on this. We're still trying
to pull that up. I do have to say here that,
finding work and data on these exclusions
of the suffrage movement is much harder than
finding information on the mainstream. But
one person who scholarship keeps showing up
again, and again, is Professor Martha Jones,
who is of course, a professor in the history
department at Johns Hopkins. Both her academic
scholarship as well as her public facing work.
And she's really done a lot to sort of highlight
you know, highlight the margins of the movement,
not just the mainstream. And I think her new
book that's coming out, I believe next month
addresses exactly these issues. And I'm very
excited to sort of have a chance to read it.
The amazing thing I think about the women's
movement and this is where I think a lot of
people who look down upon women's issues make
a mistake, is that it's so far away from just
being about women's right to vote. You know,
like I said, I've started from a blank slate,
but I'm learning about the temperance movement
in American history and the Mormon, Mormon
practices and the politics of clothing and
about the war effort. And it's about so much
more than just the right to vote. And I don't
mean just the right to vote as belittling
it, because I think that's the other thing
you learn is that voting is so powerful because
it's about such complex choices.
>>Okay. So we want to give plenty of time
for questions, but I do have a concluding
question for you too. You've spent all this
time building this terrific map. Do you have
any future plans for it?
>>Yeah. So at this point we are going ahead
in the next phase of, this is really to look
at these suffragists profiles that Nandini
was mentioning. So I will show everyone here
our, very much a work in progress. Story map,
also powered by ESRI's arc GIS tool. So here
we have a story map and we have been able
to integrate the map on to it. And here we
have gone ahead and begun some of these profiles.
Again, we're hoping to expand this and then
publish it in coming weeks coming month or
two. So that this can be highlighted on the
Hopkins Centennial commemoration website.
And we can draw a little bit more attention
to you know, the various stories that came
out of the suffrage movement.
>>Excellent. Thank you. Anything else to add
or Nandini or are you good?
>>Yeah, I'm good. I think I'm going to continue
working on this as Laurel said and perhaps
if Ivy is still interested, I'm also looking
forward to researching the collaborations
between the suffragists in the United States
with transnationally with suffragist, both
in England and another parts of the world.
>>Thank you. All right. I know that I can't
wait to start exploring the map after the
session is over. It's so cool.
>>Yes, I would encourage everyone to do so.
>>It was really neat. So we're starting to
get some questions in from the audience, so
let's see. So apparently there is a new jigsaw
puzzle that features various suffragists.
It looks like the circular game that Ivy shared.
So is there any relation? And I think definitely
I know the puzzle that you're talking about
and it was very, very clearly inspired by
the Pank-O-Squith game. So that's kind of
cool to see a modern puzzle made to commemorate
women voting, being directly inspired by a
piece of propaganda propaganda created for
the WSU. It's really cool.
Here's another question. And this one's for
Ivy; are the postcards used and is there a
writing on the postcards...give you personal
stories from the movement or anything interesting
in general? Like Ivy, did you find anything?
>>Yeah. There's to answer that question. Yes.
There's definitely writing on the back of
the postcard on some of them. And in class,
we kind of tried to decipher the handwriting
on the postcards. Interestingly, the postcards
that I kind of was the letters that was kind
of able to read on them, talked about very
mundane things. Like, I don't know, go to
the grocery store or like things that were
happening in their day. But I'm sure like
some of them are more political. But yeah,
the ones that I looked at actually didn't
even talk about suffrage at all, but it was
on a suffrage postcard, which is very interesting
in terms of like how common these postcards
were and like what purpose they kind of served
in people's daily lives.
>>And I just want to point out the first postcard
you showed, showing the scene from the women's
suffrage march in DC. If you look carefully,
you'll notice that somebody hands you an arrow,
that person ended up in the postcard, he's
pointing himself out. And he wrote about how
he had to dash around these suffragettes because
he wanted to get some lunch. So that's actually
a cool little story that does pertain to suffrage.
This one guy claims that he was there and
he was disturbed because it made him late
for his lunch date. There you have it, politics
and the quotidian. Let's see. Here's the question
regarding the map you created; does the map
differentiate where women had enfranchisement
for local or state elections, but not federal
elections?
>>Yes. So not yet. This is another way that
we're taking the map. Truly a lot of our initial
data was collected by... who's also been integral
to organizing this whole project. So the,
the next step is creating a map that shows
a timeline of the development from, you know,
either having no suffrage or, you know, suffrage
of municipal elections or statewide elections.
And then finally, when the 19th amendment
was ratified there. As it stands, all we have
is the ratification, the, the date of the
ratification of the 19th amendment for each
state, but stay tuned it's on its way. And
hopefully we can add it to that story map
page that I let you guys take the peek at
earlier, so yeah, stay tuned.
>>Oh, and here's the follow-up; do you know,
which was the last state to ratify and have
all states officially ratified it.
>>So yes. All States have ratified. I don't
recall which state was the last one to ratify.
Yeah, I don't remember off the top of my head.
>>Do you happen to know when Maryland ratified?
>>You know, we can check!
>>Mississippi, Mississippi.
>>Yeah. Yeah.
>>So 1984, yes.
>>And Maryland ratified on March 28th, 1941.
And here is a short blurb about that. So...
>>So another question for you did you say
anything about the suffrage movement being
caught up in conflicts between the wet and
the dries? So the pro temperance and the anti-temperance.
>>Yeah. This seems to be a pretty common story.
Yes. in, in many places and I, you know, I,
I'm not sure I can speak specifically to Maryland
legislature. But yes, it's pretty clear that
the women's suffrage movement was pretty closely
intertwined with the temperance movement in
many places throughout the country, and this
was especially true. So what, what I was saying
about you know, the, the opposition to women's
suffrage that you saw in a lot of the Northeast
actually came, it was funded in a lot of ways
by Tavern owners who definitely did not want
the temperance movement to gain too much...
So, yes.
>>So in terms of other projects that are currently
being done are you aware of the GIS project
at Towson University that relates to correspondence
in the women's movement?
>>No, I have not heard about it. If Susan,
I guess asked that question I, you know, I
will look it up after this certainly, but
yeah, I'd be happy to hear more about it.
>>There are, many universities are doing projects
on this to commemorate the Centennial. And
so we do try to look at a lot of them both
to get our information, but also to make sure
we weren't just replicating something else.
And we wanted to make sure we were doing something
that was new and presenting the information
in a different way.
>>Yeah. And a neat thing about this map is
that we were able to go ahead and link, link
back a lot of the resources ultimately that
we found. So you'll see here at the bottom
of this window, you can click here and it'll
link you back to the websites that we got
our information from.
>>Oh, well, here's something kind of fun.
Can you each share your favorite, fun fact,
that you've learned through your research?
>>I can go cause it's, I haven't forgotten
about this since the day I read about it.
The, my favorite, I don't know if it's fun,
but it is an interesting fact. It's about
the movement and suffrage in Utah which really
started as a joke in an opinion base written
in the New York times. And I think this might
be in the blurb that we finally put on the
map as well. Basically of course in Utah there's
a strong Mormon stronghold and the New York
times ran an opinion piece saying, oh wouldn't
it be funny if a women in Utah had the right
to vote and then they would basically vote
against Mormonism you know, which included
things like polygamy and, and all of these
but that backfired So Utah did give women
the right to vote. And then Utah women basically
confounded everyone and voted to keep Mormon
practices. And that was seen as, you know,
just taking the suffrage movement back for
so many years that the right to vote for women
and Utah was then taken away. And it wasn't
much later under the passage of the 19th amendment,
but they were able to forge again.
>>Ivy, do you have a fun fact?
>>Yeah, I can share a fun fact, I guess, this
kind of building off of some of the arguments
and like observations that you all made in
terms of the movement not being like monolithic.
Ida B Wells actually traveled to England to
kind of advocate against lynching to kind
of appeal to the press in England there in
order to kind of try to like, inspire and
create change political change in America.
So I thought that was interesting that she
traveled to England to influence the politics
and kind of the like the advocacy that was
going on in the US.
>>Laurel, do you have anything?
>>Sorry, one second. Yeah, so I don't know,
I learned so many like cute little stories
throughout this whole you know, that this
whole project there was, so Fellsmere Florida
turns out was one of the first places it's
this really tiny small town in Northern Florida,
was one of the first places in the South that
women could vote. Before the passage of the
19th amendment, it was just like a local ordinance.
They decided to let the women vote. And ... was
this woman who just she essentially just went
out to vote one day and they decided to make
it law for the town that women in that particular
town could vote. It was five years before
the ratification of the 19th amendment. So,
pretty cute.
>>So how will you carry on what you've learned
during these projects into your future academic
or professional lives? Big picture here.
>>Well, I don't know for me, I think I don't
know. I, I think moving forward I, I know
that this has had a profound impact in term
on me in terms of like, I think an acknowledgement
of kind of how recent this right was ultimately
won. Whether or not, I mean, I think that
if it effects personally, right? so clearly
I, and of course there's a lot of reason to
be kind of conscientious of the fragility
of civil rights and particularly women's rights
in the United States right now, everywhere,
but highlight on the United States. So I would
say that at least in terms of my own conscientiousness
this is heightened it, certainly I would say,
and, and of course that's going to carry into
my professional life. So I guess it would
be a more kind of an indirect way, right?
I study animals and make engineers. This is
a little bit different from women's suffrage.
But again, I think the principles in terms
of the academic world remain much the same.
>>Sure. Ivy?
>>I think, okay. I think for me I agree it's
also definitely had a very like personal impact
on me and the way that I view like historical
movements now and like really kind of learning
to understand their complexities and the contradictions
within them. I thought, I think that's really
interesting. And then I guess a bit more short
term is me and my co-fellow we're curating,
or we're working on curating an exhibit that
basically shows our research. So stay tuned
for that. We're still working on it and finalizing
everything.
>>Well, thanks so much for joining us and
hope that if you're interested in learning
more about the women's suffrage movement and
how Hopkins is commemorating it, that you
check out, not just this really incredible
story maps that Ivy created, but you also
join us next Wednesday for our next session.
That's featuring a talk with the author of
the women's hour. So thank you very much for
your great questions and your time, and we
hope you have a wonderful evening. Okay. Bye,
all.
