Category Archives: Blog

Our work requires thought, planning, and preparation.

Start planning now for Women’s History Month in March. And we’re working on building support to make August 26th, Women’s Equality Day, a national holiday. Have you signed a petition? Have you done your part in getting support from your state or organization?

Get ready for Women’s History Month in March! on Vimeo.

We need your help in building a support infrastructure for making August 26th a national holiday!

A Nellie Bly special: Trade Cards from the collection of Kenneth Florey on Vimeo.

WHY WERE TEAHOUSES POPULAR OVER 100 YEARS AGO?

Who would have thought that the popularity of suffrage tea houses in the early women’s rights campaigning had to do with bathrooms?

City public places often didn’t have bathrooms for women. And the Market Street tea house in downtown Philadelphia became a place for voting rights meetings as well a place where Edna and Wilmer met as a place to get to know each other.

FIND OUT THE STORY OF HOW EDNA AND WILMER FELL IN LOVE IN THE BOOK BY MARGUERITE KEARNS.

Suffrage Storytelling is included in the book by Marguerite Kearns… on Vimeo.

Unfinished-Revolution.com has been publishing since 2020.

We need your help in building a support infrastructure for making August 26th a national holiday!

2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative continues sharing news about centennial activity through the end of this year. WVCI hosted two programs with the National Archives on the centennial celebration itself—what happened and what was learned from it. Visit 2020Centennial.org

Inez Milholland French Onion Soup at Suffrage Wagon Cooking School on Vimeo.

Suffrage history advocates did cartwheels to get attention for suffrage centennials and certain issues. This video, above, honors Inez Milholland, the US suffrage martyr.

In the event that my friends have the impression that I’m a one-channel station, take a look at the video about the Española Farmers Market in New Mexico where I’m been blogging and documenting images of produce since 2007. October is usually the last month before farmers’ markets close for the season. Here’s a sampling in the video I made a few years ago.

The Espanola Farmers Market in New Mexico! on Vimeo.

I have also been blogging about my grandmother Edna’s suffrage campaign wagon and related news since 2009 on Suffrage Wagon News Channel.

And I’m spreading the word about my book, An Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights.

Of course, there are suffrage centennials to follow as long as necessary. SuffrageCentennials.com has been publishing since 2013.

Marguerite Kearns’s book highlights her grandmother, Edna Kearns! on Vimeo.

Choose the VOTE and use it: Don’t forget! on Vimeo.

Suggestions for celebrations at Suffrage Centennials! on Vimeo.

WHY WE AREN’T RETIRING SUFFRAGECENTENNIALS.COM

by Marguerite Kearns

I thought that it might be necessary to retire SuffrageCentennials.com after all of the suffrage and women’s rights activities of 2020. We couldn’t have imagined the bipartisan support for the recognition of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

Sad to say that the efforts of those wishing to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution have been fiercely opposed. The ERA was drafted almost 100 years ago in 1923 by suffrage activist Alice Paul. The United States is behind in terms of guaranteeing equal rights to women, more than half of the US voting public.

WILL THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT BE ADDED TO THE US CONSTITUTION?

Our specialty over the past decade has been to send reminder emails about upcoming events and special activities. For more than a decade we were promoting a mostly volunteer voting rights movement to take place in 2020. It happened. Great work!

And now what? More opposition? Voting restrictions? The activists of the early 20th century women’s voting rights movement would be horrified to discover that zeal and determination to restrict voting rights.

We also have opposition to the basics of constitutional protection. An Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. This is unacceptable.

Don’t give up, says an active and persistent advocate, Sylvia Cruz in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Generations of us have been passing the torch, I’m adding to the appeal. WE have moved this far due to persistence and determination.

Let’s celebrate who we are, what we have accomplished together, and more. Stand firm and pass the torch!

Women are written into U.S. history! from Marguerite Kearns on Vimeo.

SuffrageCentennials.com has been publishing since 2013.

We need your help in building a support infrastructure for making August 26th a national holiday!

Suffrage Wagon Cooking School is inspired by Toshi Seeger, Hudson River filmmaker & activist! on Vimeo.

We love Toshi Seeger for her work in the Hudson Valley of New York State and the nation by bringing together activism and cooking.

Suffrage Wagon Cooking School is a program of Suffrage Wagon News Channel.

UPDATE FROM MARGUERITE KEARNS

… When I worked for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, I remember Toshi Seeger boiling up Stone Soup, her signature dish for potlucks and special events.

Pete Seeger’s aunt, Anita Pollitzer, was a well-known suffrage activist with the National Woman’s Party who worked for the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in the US.

And Toshi’s Stone Soup inspired many volunteers in the programs of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater over the years since the launching of the replica sloop in 1969. The sloop was a familiar sight on the Hudson River for decades.

TOSHI’S STONE SOUP AT POTLUCKS FOR HUDSON RIVER SLOOP CLEARWATER INSPIRED MANY TO GET INVOLVED IN RIVER CLEANUP

Women Voters: Remember that Food and Activism go together! on Vimeo.

Sign up for updates from SuffrageCentennials.com

Keep in mind the book, An Unfinished Revolution, by Marguerite Kearns.

Get ready for Women’s History Month in March! on Vimeo.

It may seem early to promote March and Women’s History Month. But it’s not too late to be thinking about it!

There are more than 2800 people who have signed the August 26th petition on change.com. Have you?

Have you circulated this with your friends? The goal is to reach over 100,000 by next year,

https://www.change.org/p/elevate-women-s-equality-day-to-a-federal-holiday

Listen to Bob Cudmore interview Marguerite Kearns about her book, An Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights on “The Historians.”

“THE HISTORIANS” IS SPREADING THE WORD…

Link to The Historians radio program from New York State.

Take your voting rights seriously by walking in your ancestors’ shoes! on Vimeo.

by Marguerite Kearns

We walk in our ancestors’ shoes to understand more fully what the situation was like over 100+ years ago. Then we shift back into receiving the torch of freedom from prior generations and adjusting activism to what we’re facing today. This is what happens to me when I view the long and difficult campaigning efforts to expand voting rights. Prior generations primarily consisted of volunteers. They did what they could and passed the torch to the next generation to celebrate the accomplishments and tackle the ongoing challenges.

SuffrageCentennials.com couldn’t go offline after the 2020 suffrage centennial. There’s still work to be done. We’ve been publishing since 2013.

LYNN COFFIN REVIEWS BOOK FOR OUTREACH, NEARO PUBLICATION FOR 800

“It may seem difficult for women living in this century to identify with women’s earlier efforts to achieve the vote—a right we take for granted. But, 100 years ago, women were jailed and even beaten for peacefully demonstrating and insisting that voting should be a woman’s right…”

Lynn Coffin about An Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights by Marguerite Kearns

We’re passing the torch of women’s rights activism to the next generation and we’re marching into the future with you! Some call it the suffrage movement or women’s history or the book by Marguerite Kearns released from SUNY Press (State University of New York)—An Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights.

VOTING RIGHTS BOOK EVENTS IN SEPTEMBER 2021

Author Marguerite Kearns will be an Artist-in-Residence at Byrdcliffe in Woodstock, NY during September 2021. That’s when there will be a flurry of activity associated with the book published by SUNY Press (State University of New York), An Unfinished Revolution. Kearns will present live on September 19, 2021 at the Historical Society of Woodstock, 2-3:30 p.m. EST at the HSW location, 20 Comeau Drive in Woodstock about her book.

A related HSW exhibition will be on display from September 19 through October 24, 2021: “Standing on their Shoulders: Passing the Women’s Rights Torch to the Present Day.” The exhibit is made possible by a grant from Humanities New York, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

THE PASSING OF A TORCH WAS INVOLVED IN THE 2020 SUFFRAGE CENTENNIAL

Millions of Americans passed the torch to future generations of activists when they planned and held events, conferences, and special suffrage centennial programs during 2020.

When the US electorate elected Kamala Harris in 2020 to serve as the first woman in the White House as US Vice President, this turned out to be an excellent example of “passing the torch.”

EXAMPLES OF BOOKS, EVENTS, SPECIAL PROJECTS AND MORE SHOW SIGNS OF PASSING THE TORCH OF VOTING RIGHTS ACTIVISM

The Spirit of 1776 suffrage wagon used by Edna Kearns and others in 1913 is an important illustration of passing the torch from the present to the future. The suffrage campaign wagon has been on display at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY since 2017. In July 2021 the wagon was returned top the museum warehouse for a rest from the continuous light. It will be returned to display in the future.

Women’s rights campaigning that qualifies as “passing the torch” applies to the long-term effort to add the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) to the US Constitution. It applies to the Alice Paul Institute, the Turning Point Suffrage Memorial, the national and the states’ suffrage commissions, and MUCH MORE.

Suffrage centennials didn’t come about by accident! on Vimeo.

It took many activists and the effort of numerous organizations over the years lobbying for the 100th anniversary of US women voting to gather the support it did. And it ALL happened on the local, state, and national levels!

SuffrageWagon.org has been publishing since 2009. It highlights the Spirit of ’76 suffrage campaign wagon used by activist Edna Kearns and others in NYC and Long Island in 1913.

SuffrageCentennials.com has been publishing since 2013.

Unfinished-Revolution.com is the website for the book from SUNY Press by Marguerite Kearns.