National Women History Museum: A Guide to Many Places

For an in-depth look at women’s history in the United States, check out the National Women’s History Museum. Unlike museums that you can actually go to, this one is on-line. The museum is a virtual smorgasbord of U.S. women’s history that includes current news, visual exhibits (the cyber variety) and event descriptions that you actually can go to—for real. One link, however, lists women’s history walking tours that are the do-it-your-self variety.

The walking tours are divided into three categories. Good Old Days: Women’s Daily Lives includes various houses where prominent women in the Washington, D.C. area lived, places that highlight women’s lives in the past, and The DAR Museum (The Daughters of the American Revolution). The In Their Footsteps tour traces the path of the women’s suffragist movement and the tour, Women in the Abolitionist Movement highlights sites in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and New York.

The tours aren’t meant to be followed in any particular order. Instead, they provide an unique way to approach history with a focus on the women who helped it happen.

Women’s History Month: Susan B. Anthony’s House

March is National Women’s History Month. With this year’s theme, “Generation’s of Women Moving History Forward,” here’s a hooray to the house of the woman who gave the women’s rights movement its early momentum.

Even though the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin isn’t made anymore due to its lack of success, the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, N.Y. is a gem. Okay, I confess; I haven’t been there, but I am a proud dues paying member. Susan B. Anthony, civil rights leader, women’s rights activist and all around terrific gal was a close friend to Frederick Douglass. Between them, they helped change American history.

Anthony lived in this house when she was at her activist best. She was even arrested here after she voted. You have to love an upstart. Besides touring the house to see how she lived, there are exhibits that highlight her life and work. Each month there is a lecture and luncheon as well. If you don’t have time to hop on over to Rochester any time soon, you can tour the house on the website. It’s pretty nifty. Each room will come up and then the camera pans each.

In case you want a Susan B. Anthony dollar. Keep your eye out. The last 41,368,000 were minted in 1999, but they are still circulating.