Selected Sites in Women’s History

Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, is a site dedicated to remembering the life and legacy of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus and was found guilty of disorderly conduct the following Monday. That same day, the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was selected as the president. The organization voted to boycott bus operations to protest the segregated bus service, and the Montgomery Improvement Association filed suit in federal court on behalf of those discriminated against by the bus service. Over one year later, in 1956, the court order requiring integrated bus service was served to Montgomery officials.   

“Rosie the Riveter” became a powerful symbol of the essential roles women played on the home front during World War II. As millions of men went off to war, women stepped into positions in factories and shipyards, taking on tasks like riveting, welding, and assembling military equipment. For many, it was an opportunity to move from lower-paying jobs into skilled positions that paid significantly more. The impact these women had on the workforce and home front challenged and transformed public ideas about women’s capabilities. The Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, honors this legacy and the “significant contributions individuals can make when given the chance.” 

The Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Educational Center located in Salmon, Idaho, fosters the knowledge and appreciation of the Agai’dika Shoshone-Bannock tribes, providing an opportunity for education and connection to the unique history this area holds in history and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacagawea was a member of the Lemhi band of the Shoshone tribe, and she accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition from 1804 to 1806. Her skills as a translator were invaluable, as was her intimate knowledge of difficult terrain and edible or medicinal plants. In his journal, Clark attributed much of the mission’s success to her. 

Connect with the histories of social transformation at the Jane Addams Jull-House Museum in Chicago, Illinois. In the late 1800s, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr were inspired by a new model of public service and founded the Hull-House to support immigrant communities. Soon, Hull-House became the country’s most influential social settlement, where Addams and others provided kindergarten and day care facilities, citizen courses, libraries, and art, music, and theater classes. They built playgrounds, championed immigrant rights and improvements to public health, called for an end to child labor, and advocated for public housing. 

The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas, is a tangible way for visitors of all ages to learn about Amelia Earhart’s life and legacy. Earhart is best known for her flying achievements, such as becoming the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight in 1932. On July 2, 1937, Earhart’s plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean as she was attempting to become the first woman to pilot a plane around the world.  During her life, she was an advocate for women’s rights and was instrumental in the formation of the Ninety-Nines, an organization for women pilots.  

Born into slavery as Araminta Ross, Harriet Tubman became one of the best-known "conductors" on the Underground Railroad by guiding seventy enslaved people to freedom. She made nineteen recorded trips out of the South and claimed, “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park in Church Creek, Maryland, preserves the places and spaces that Tubman and her passengers traveled on their way to freedom.  

In 1848, the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention convened for the purpose of discussing the “social, civil, and religious conditions and the rights of woman” and is marked as an important beginning step of the women’s rights movement in the United States. The Declaration of Sentiments was the document discussed at the two-day convention, and it boldly proclaimed that “all men and women are created equal.” Located in Seneca Falls, New York, the Declaration Park and Waterwall depicts the text and signers of the Declaration of Sentiments.  

Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, pioneered “the joint education of the sexes” by enrolling both women and men as students since its opening in 1833. In addition to fostering a commitment to coeducation, the college also supported the education of African Americans. In 1862, Mary Jane Patterson graduated from Oberlin as the first African American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree. Many other notable women throughout American history attended Oberlin College, such as the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and suffragist Lucy Stone.  

The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, played a significant role in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. By August of 1920, thirty-five states had ratified the amendment, and one more was needed for it to become law. Tennessee convened a special session to vote on the amendment, and the Hermitage Hotel became the center of the excitement as both pro- and anti-suffrage campaigners set up camp there. After a tense and dramatic vote, the Nineteenth Amendment became law.  

Preserved as a tribute to her enduring legacy, the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site in Richmond, Virginia, provides visitors with an opportunity to learn more about the first African American woman in the United States to found a bank. In 1903, Maggie Lena Walker founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, which thrived as the oldest continually African American-operated bank in the United States until 2009. In addition to her work, Walker was an advocate for women’s rights and served on the board of trustees for several civic groups. Her house in Jackson Ward is a tribute to her success as an entrepreneur and community leader.  

The Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Washington, DC, “tells the story of a community of women who dedicated their lives to fight for women’s rights.” Alice Paul founded the National Woman’s Party in 1916 to fight for women’s equality, and, in 1929, the National Woman’s Party bought the house to use as their headquarters. With the Nineteenth Amendment ratified in 1920, the group continued their efforts to win social, political, and economic equality for women by proposing the Equal Rights Amendment.  

Known as the Equality State, Wyoming was the first territory or state in the United States to grant women the right to vote in 1869. Women retained this right when the territory became a state in 1890. The state capitol building in Cheyenne features a bronze statue of Esther Hobart Morris, the first woman to serve as Justice of the Peace in the United States. Wyoming was also the first state to elect a woman as governor when Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected in 1924. The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming in Laramie houses a collection of manuscripts and archival materials where you can explore the stories of many women who contributed to Wyoming’s rich history.