NWHM in the News

The commission is partnering with organizations that will give them input on how to acknowledge “the good, the bad and the ugly,” as Rios put it, like the National Congress of American Indians and the National Women’s History Museum. “I want to go beyond just the obvious stories of women,” says Frédérique Irwin, president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum.

Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1822 and dedicated her life to helping others escape. In her lifetime, she led approximately 70 enslaved people to freedom, per the National Women's History Museum. In New York City, Tubman worked with other abolitionists and organizations that helped her organize the trips between the north and south, and NYC would mark the start of the proposed corridor.

Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913, at 91 years old, according to the National Women’s History Museum. Surrounded by loved ones, her final words were documented as “I go away to prepare a place for you,” a reference to John 14:3 in the Bible, according to Kate Clifford Larson, author of 'Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero.' “Aunt Harriet did her part,” Wyatt said. “Now we have to do things to help ourselves heal.” And the best way to do that, she said, is to celebrate freedom.

The National Women’s History Museum wrote that, as a polygamous wife herself and a doctor who delivered babies that the federal government saw as evidence of polygamy, Cannon was considered an important witness in prosecuting people in polygamous marriages. To protect her husband and her patients, she at different times of her life fled to England and California, where she lived in exile.

The United States Mint and National Women’s History Museum will collaborate on the June 8 event from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time at Oswego High School, 2 Buccaneer Blvd., in Oswego. The event will include a panel discussion about Dr. Walker’s legacy, and performances and a special presentation to the Walker family. The event is free but registration is required at the National Women’s History Museum website.

According to the National Women's History Museum, Bates was a prominent civil rights activist in Little Rock Arkansas. Throughout the 1900s, she helped lead a popular newspaper, The Arkansas Weekly, served as the President of the NAACP Arkansas chapter and pushed the state's schools to integrate after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed segregation unconstitutional in 1954 ... "She regularly drove the students to school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds. She also advised the group and even joined the school’s parent organization," the Museum wrote about her.

Mayor Rob Corradino has announced that the Oswego Town Historical Society, the National Women’s History Museum, and the U.S. Mint will hold a ceremony June 8 at the Oswego High School’s Robinson-Faust Theater at 2 p.m. to honor and celebrate Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and reveal the Dr. Walker quarter. June 8 has been proclaimed as Dr. Mary Edwards Walker Day in the city. Walker is one of only five women selected by the U.S. Mint for its American Women Quarters Program in recognition of her accomplishments and contributions to history

Local and national organizations have joined forces to recognize a true American pioneer – Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. The National Women’s History Museum and the U.S. Mint are working with the Oswego Town Historical Society and the Oswego County Historical Society to hold a ceremony on Saturday, June 8. The free event is open to the public and celebrates the upcoming release of the Dr. Mary Walker quarter as part of the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program, which recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of trailblazing women who have helped shape American history and pave the way for generations to come.

In addition, I’m on the Advisory Board of the National Women’s History Museum. That panel led to important connections and, since then, I’ve been talking with park rangers about how we at UD can participate more in telling these stories. I spoke with a Kansas park ranger who is the head of Brown v. Board of Education site. He reached out to me to facilitate a grant they were offering for historians to study the cases and the history of segregation and desegregation in states that had cases come to the court.

The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton on this day in history, May 21, 1881 ... She spent her early career as a teacher before moving to Washington, D.C. to work in the U.S. Patent Office. At the time of the American Civil War, Barton shifted her career once again, becoming a battlefield nurse, said the American Red Cross. Barton worked in this intense form of nursing despite having no formal medical training, says the National Women's History Museum.