Michigan’s Suffrage Movement on Display at Kalamazoo Valley Museum

Today is an auspicious day. 100 years ago on August 18th, the 19th amendment was ratified giving every woman in this country the right to vote. The decades-long fight of millions of women around our nation had seen satisfaction. I simply cannot imagine the joy the members of the suffragist movement felt knowing they were seen as independent citizens who had a voice that was finally going to be heard. The Kalamazoo Area League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization that, according to their website, is "neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public," will celebrate these vote-hungry upstarts with an installation at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum when they reopen in the fall. The second floor feature includes a timeline tracing the history of the suffragist movement through the, quote, "milestones of the League from 1920 to 2020," including the signing of Michigan's Suffrage Bill. You can learn about what happened in Kalamazoo nad Michigan over a hundred years ago to support the movement and help make the 19th amendment possible.

Included in the installation is a focus on Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane, a Unitarian minister and Kalamazoo resident. On display is Crane's architectural marvel, a model of her 1924 "Everyman's House" which was designed to be the most efficient home to date for the modern man or woman. She later had that house built right here in Kalamazoo.

Although circumstances are keeping us from seeing the installation at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, nothing is stopping us from taking some time today to reflect back on all they did to give women a voice 100 years ago today.