Previously by Sophia Dembling: Red Cloud, Nebraska: A Literary Pilgrimage to Willa Cather Country
The Pro Football Hall of Fame and the First Ladies National Historic Site are both located in Canton, Ohio. Can you guess which one is 118,000 square feet of million-dollar interactive razzle-dazzle, and which one…isn’t? In researching my book, 100 Places in the USA Every Woman Should Go, I visited many sites focused on women’s history. And while they were all fascinating and worthwhile, some of them were also—it must be said—kind of rinky-dink. So many amazing women; so many fascinating stories; so many underfunded, underappreciated sites that could be so much more. But local governments are sensitive to tourist dollars, so if we start showing up to see the places that tell our stories, more money and more attention will follow. Let’s show these places some love.
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National Women’s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, New York
Seneca Falls is the birthplace of women’s suffrage and home to the Women’s Rights National Historic Park, so it’s a perfect place for the National Women’s Hall of Fame. While a capital campaign is currently underway to convert a historic knitting mill into the Center for Great Women, which will include the hall of fame, currently, the stories of 259 (as of early 2015) great women—from Sojourner Truth to Lilly Ledbetter—are crammed into a former bank building.
I read as many of the photo-and-bio-in-a-cheap-frame plaques as my attention span could handle, and learned many things I didn’t know – that the Apgar score was developed by Virginia Apgar, and that Nettie Stevens discovered that men and women have different chromosomes. But I grew cross-eyed after reading just a fraction of the plaques. A new site, some artifacts, and more focused exhibits will make the experience more engaging.
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First Ladies National Historic Site, Canton, Ohio
“I know what’s best for the president,” First Lady Florence Harding once said. “I put him in the White House. He does well when he listens to me and poorly when he does not.”
The First Ladies National Historic Site is in the Saxton-McKinley house, home to First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley and her husband. A costumed docent leads you on a requisite but interesting tour of the house before cutting you loose in the third-floor ballroom to view the portraits and bios of our 46-and-counting First Ladies, in addition to a few artifacts. (Fun fact: Much of the exhibit is from the collection of Craig Schermer, a prominent collector of First Lady memorabilia, who also portrays several of the First Ladies in one-man educational shows.) Temporary exhibits in the nearby research library are also fun; wish they were permanent.
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National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
The museums of Washington, DC were crowded and chaotic during my June visit—except for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which was all but empty.
The museum is in a lovely circa-1900 building, a former Masonic temple. Its 4,000-object collection reflects women’s work from around the world and over the centuries. Only a fraction of the collection is on display, but I had a lot of forehead-slapping moments here, like seeing portraits painted by women in the 16th and 17th centuries—so rare in many art museums, I was idiotically surprised to find that so many existed. And learning that women didn’t make a splash in the star-making artistic salons of the 19th century because women were prohibited from studying and painting the nude figure, and the fashion in art at that time was pretty fleshy. I also had no idea that actress Sarah Bernhardt was also a sculptor. I learned so much; this museum is well worth a visit if you are planning a trip to DC.
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Women in Military Service for America Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia
In November 1776, Margaret Corbin stood by her husband, a gunner, in the Revolutionary War. When he was killed, she stepped up to his cannon, eventually becoming the first woman to receive a pension from the U.S. government for military service.
In 1997, more than 200 years and 40,000+ uniformed servicewomen later, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial was dedicated. It was authorized by Congress, but apart from some federal grants, this memorial was built almost entirely with private donations.
The building in Arlington National Cemetery includes a rooftop walkway decorated with quotes such as, “The qualities that are most important in all military jobs—things like integrity, moral courage, and determination—have nothing to do with gender” (Rhonda Cornum, Major, U.S. Army Medical Corps, Operation Desert Storm). The orientation film shown on-site is fascinating, and I spent a lot of time during my visit planted on a small, hard bench in front of a TV-sized video screen watching a documentary about nurses in Vietnam. The memorial has also begun compiling a registry of women who have served, women we still haven’t heard enough about.
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The Red Onion Brothel Museum, Skagway, Alaska
The Red Onion Saloon was a real brothel during the Gold Rush. It had 10 “cribs” upstairs, and 10 dolls behind the bar representing the women on the job. If the doll was laid on her back, it meant that woman was with another client.
Today, the Red Onion Brothel Museum is essentially a kitschy stop for cruise ship passengers, who tour the building and listen to stories recited by young women dressed in “madam” costumes. I learned a great deal by picking up a copy of Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush: Secret History of the Far North. The women who followed the men north were adventurers and explorers and entrepreneurs, too — these were no rag dolls. While some met sad endings, others went on to run boarding houses and hotels and other businesses, and some became quite well-to-do. I wish the museum had told me more about what all of these women were really like.
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aSHEville Museum, Asheville, North Carolina
I don’t like the name — which is pronounced “a she-ville museum,” and looks like a typo — but this new museum, which opened in July 2014, houses one of the greatest exhibits ever: “A History of Hysteria,” which includes vibrators throughout the ages.
“100 Years of Sexism in Advertising” is also fun, but could benefit from a little context and interpretation; when I was there, it was pretty bare-bones. Temporary exhibits included women of Appalachia, refugees in Mesopotamia, photos by photojournalist Ami Vitale, and an exhibit on quilting. In other words, there’s a lot going on in a small museum. It has a great deal of potential.
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Every one of these sites is worthy of visiting. And there are many other sites out there that are even better than you might expect, including the glitzy Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; the Pioneer Woman Museum in Ponca City, Oklahoma, which is newly expanded; Ninety Nines Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahome City, which is small and homespun but packed with fascinating stories and artifacts; and the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, which includes lots about women’s war experiences. If we visit and tell others about these existing museums and historic sites, maybe they will eventually build more. There are so many more stories of fascinating and brilliant women yet to be told.
Tags: historic sites, history, museums, sophia dembling, women
Oh god I want to do a Lady Road Trip and see alllll of these.
D.C. to Alaska, can you imagine? I don’t think there’s anyone on the planet (including the Burgomaster) I could share car space with for that long. Gonna pick up a copy of 100 Places in the USA Every Woman Should Go, for road trip ideas once the Chevelle is on the road, though.
Someone needs to start a Toast travel agency for trips like this.
I’m going to DC at the end of the month, I’ll have to check out the NMWA.
Oh, you definitely should! I went many, many years ago now and completely fell in love with it.
It’s a gorgeous building too! They have lots of weddings there.
I am going to a wedding there tomorrow!
It’s lovely. And it was nearly empty the day I went too. Gorgeous building, and lovely, lovely art.
(I may have chuckled heartily over it having been a Masonic temple and now being full of ladies)
If you’re in DC you should also hit up the Sewall Belmont House, which has a great collection from the women’s suffrage movement! Here’s their site: http://www.sewallbelmont.org/
I got to go to the Women’s Rights National Park this summer in Seneca Falls. It was so exciting for me. Upstate NY was a hotbed of religious experimentation and political radicalism then. The museum could be a bit better but it was still an energizing experience.
There really was a lot of interesting stuff going on in upstate NY back then. (Not to mention all the spiritualists and free love communes…)
If anyone comes to CNY to visit Seneca Falls, let me know! CNY Toastie Women’s Rights meetup! How great would that be?
Hey, I’m a CNY Toastie! I would be ALL OVER a CNY Toastie Women’s Rights meetup.
I’m three and a half hours away…not quite central enough. I’m very lazy, but also very tempted!
I am here for one more month! Let’s make it happen.
Yesss! Which city/ town are you in?
It should probably be an alcohol-free meet up to be really true to the spirit of things, but what Elizabeth Cady Stanton doesn’t know won’t hurt her.
Ithaca. You?
Ithaca as well, of course! Also only here temporarily, although I’ve got until the end of August.
I would be up for this! (I’m in Rochester, and it’s a nice drive).
I haven’t been to the museum in years, but I’d love to go again. I went with my feminist grandma when I was in my teens, and remember it being quite interesting.
Buffalo gal here. I would soooo be in for this!!!
Weren’t there some Toasties near Albany (from several Cocktail Hours ago)? Anybody interested in a carpool? I’m in Kingston (an hour south of Albany).
Did you know that the Susan B Anthony Birthplace Museum is in Adams, Massachusetts? Just over an hour from Albany, it’s a great little museum!
Mr. Delperro and I are planning on taking an Alaska cruise next summer. I’ll have to make sure it stops in Skagway. Thanks!
i knew about none of these, and this is really cool. thanks!
especially the National Museum of Women in the Arts omg i want to go live there for a little while.
I did a significant portion of my MA thesis research at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial (specifically, their archive and library). It’s an amazing institution with incredible resources, and everyone I worked with there was phenomenal. Definitely worth checking out (and if you can get access to them, their oral histories are amazing as well)! The stories of women fighting both for their country and against its patriarchy are complex and compelling, as all good histories are.
My mom and my grandma both have their names and ranks listed in the registry at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It’s my dream to go there someday and see it.
Seconding the Oklahoma and Texas museums and adding the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots not White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) Museum in Sweetwater, TX to that list. I used to volunteer there when I was stationed nearby in the Air Force and their annual homecoming when they gather as many veterans back there as they can is really something special. Sadly, when that isn’t going on the museum is pretty much just an old hangar. (Unless a lot has been going on in the four years since I’ve been there.)
I am surprised, this being the Toast, that the accompanying picture isn’t Lisa Simpson at the empty Winifred Beecher Howe memorial. (I had to look that up, I’m not THAT much of a Simpsons nerd).
But this reminds me that I’ve been meaning to go to the National Museum of Women in the Arts ever since I moved to DC and have yet to do it. Putting it on my to-do list now!
I got really into first ladies a few months ago.
I found a ranking: Dolly Madison is first. She was first lady for 16 years (under Jefferson and Madison), she pre-looted the White House before British troops burned it, and she saved the most of the early texts that the country was built on. Also she was fabulous. I feel like this is a reasonable decision.
Harriet Lane is second, due to her skill in seating arrangements just before the Civil War. ! ! !
No, you see, it was really hard! Lots of times, people would come to blows about their differing opinions regarding slavery and states’ rights, and it was very difficult to have seating arrangements that followed the rules of propriety and order while preventing fistfights. It was SO DIFFICULT to give the appearance of serene accord when the country was about to descend into civil war! This is the second most important thing a first lady has ever done! (Also she had amazing shoulders, apparently.)
Oh my gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd the First Ladies Museum is so much better than the Pro Football HOF takeover of greater Canton. Your tour guide is dressed up AS A FIRST LADY, part of the tour is in this gorgeous old bank, you actually learn actual stuff, and Ida McKinley’s sadness would be a great slow-paced, dimly lit, stiffly acted, tragic mini series. It’s neat to learn about the evolution of the 1st lady position and how certain 1st ladies played these crucial diplomatic roles. All these china sets they had to pick and design… Also the story of how the Saxton McKinley house was saved restored = le awesome. Dr. Sheila Fisher is such a hero wears so much purple http://www.firstladies.org/sheila-fisher.aspx
Wow, I do not like the football HOF. I do not like it. jkfdjadf;a;dfsj If it could be self-contained in a giant plastic bubble (pref one you could not see into) that would be great, but it leaks. It leaaaaaaaaaaaaaks. Tacky football-themed art (sucks up arts funding, too), new football-honoring names for places, and some gross mentality that football and football culture are more important that stuff that isn’t football. The HOF used to be this innocuous (except in July) giant orange juicer, but now it’s becoming ~the Hall of Fame village~ Hearing that Jameis Winston was a 1st round draft pick was like, oh great, he’ll probs get inaugurated in 30 years or whenever. Look forward to a giant banner of his face on the highway. Barf.
Side note: the McKinley Monument where Ida is buried is so weird, amazing, creepy.
Oh my gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd the First Ladies Museum is so much better than the Pro Football HOF takeover of greater Canton. Your tour guide is dressed up AS A FIRST LADY, part of the tour is in this gorgeous old bank, you actually learn actual stuff, and Ida McKinley's sadness would be a great slow-paced, dimly lit, stiffly acted, tragic mini series. It's neat to learn about the evolution of the 1st lady position and how certain 1st ladies played these crucial diplomatic roles. All these china sets they had to pick and design… Also the story of how the Saxton McKinley house was saved restored = le awesome. Dr. Sheila Fisher is such a hero wears so much purple http://www.firstladies.org/sheila-fisher.aspx
Wow, I do not like the football HOF. I do not like it. jkfdjadf;a;dfsj If it could be self-contained in a giant plastic bubble (pref one you could not see into) that would be great, but it leaks. It leaaaaaaaaaaaaaks. Tacky football-themed art (sucks up arts funding, too), new football-honoring names for places, and some gross mentality that football and football culture are more important that stuff that isn't football. The HOF used to be this innocuous (except in July) giant orange juicer, but now it's becoming ~the Hall of Fame village~ Hearing that Jameis Winston was a 1st round draft pick was like, oh great, he'll probs get inaugurated in 30 years or whenever. Look forward to a giant banner of his face on the highway. Barf.
Side note: the McKinley Monument where Ida is buried is so weird, amazing, creepy.
The Frances Perkins site in Damariscotta, Maine is well worth a visit. It’s easy to miss, and should be SO much more than it is, but it’s absolutely fascinating. Not only was she the first woman on the US cabinet, she basically created the Social Security system. Quite a legacy, and not nearly as celebrated as she should be.
Emily Dickinson’s house is the most depressing museum I think I’ve ever been to.