Maine Suffrage Trail: Road to the 19th Amendment
In 2020, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation awarded every state five roadside markers to commemorate suffragists and locations in which suffrage activity took place. These donations were routed through the National Votes for Women Trail, a project of the National Collaborative of Women’s History Sites. In Maine, the Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative (MSCC), spearheaded by Anne B. Gass, managed the process of identifying suffragists and locations, securing approval from the Pomeroy Foundation, and obtaining permission for markers to be erected. The Pomeroy Foundation’s guidelines for the marker program stipulated that the suffrage activity had to have been in service to the passage of the 19th Amendment through which most women won the right to vote, and it had to be documented. Ultimately, we decided to fundraise separately for two additional markers, one to honor Black suffragists, and another to honor an Indigenous woman who fought for Native voting rights. As a side benefit, the additional two markers provide a template that can be used to erect markers recognizing other women in Maine for their contributions to women’s rights. Our journey to commemorate Maine’s suffrage story and its activists took many twists and turns. We are grateful for the guidance we received from so many people on how to research and recognize all the women who did so much to win suffrage. More work remains to be done to recognize BIPOC activists, but the seven markers are a good start in bringing Maine’s suffrage history the recognition it deserves
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Episodes
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Lucy’s considerable achievements in the arts were matched by her activism on the part of the Penobscot people. Though most American women won the right to vote through the 19th Amendment, Maine didn’t extend voting rights to Indigenous peoples until 1954.Yet as the State didn’t create voting districts for the reservations, Native peoples here weren’t fully enfranchised until 1967.
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Sarah Isabel (Whittier) Greenwood of Farmington, Maine, organized the Farmington Equal Suffrage League in 1906 after hearing a speech in Portland urging women to join the suffrage movement. She held meetings in her home and recruited other men and women to join the cause. Soon she had organized a Franklin County Equal Suffrage League as well.
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
In 1854, Sen. Thomas McCulloch Hayes of Saco asked the Maine legislature to consider women’s voting rights, but it was not until the 19th Amendment was fully ratified that most Maine women won the right to vote (Native Americans would not be fully enfranchised until 1967).
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Camille Lessard Bissonnette | 1883-1970
Marker Location: 223 Lisbon Street, Lewiston, Maine
Camille Lessard Bissonnette was born in Ste-Julie-de-Mégantic, QC, and moved to Maine from Laurierville, Quebec, CA in 1904. She was a feminist in the early 1900s, before the concept of feminism was more widely known.
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Augusta Hunt | 1842 - 1932
Marker Location: 165 State Street Portland, Maine
Throughout her life Augusta Merrill Barstow Hunt worked for women’s rights, suffrage and the temperance movement.
Hosted by the League of Women Voters of MaineFeaturing Anne Gass
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Florence Brooks Whitehouse | 1869 - 1945
Robert Treat Whitehouse | 1870 - 1924
Marker Location: 42 Deering Street Portland, Maine
Florence and Robert were born in Augusta, Maine, and moved to Portland following their marriage in 1894. Their first home in Portland was at 42 Deering Street, and this is where their marker can be found.
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