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(Collage by Marty Blake for The Washington Post)
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When you look at the Star-Spangled Banner in the National Museum of American History, who comes to mind? Francis Scott Key, most likely, for he saw the flag "still there" during a British attack on Baltimore and wrote the words that became the national anthem. But if it was Key who made the flag famous, it was Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore seamstress, who made the flag. And not only is Pickersgill notable for creating those "broad stripes and bright stars," but she also founded one of the first social service programs for widows and abandoned women.
Women's History Month in March is the perfect time to learn more about women like Pickersgill and to explore the many sites in the Washington area marking women's achievements. Discover both familiar and lesser-known women in all fields of endeavor. Visit historic houses, museums, monuments, statues, burial sites, government buildings and libraries. View objects these women used, wore and created, as well as their portraits and archives. Peer into their times. Hear their stories. Assess their legacies.
As we discovered in writing "The Women's History Guide to Washington," there's certainly more than a year's worth here to do. But you can at least begin this month – perhaps by pondering Martha Washington's life and achievements rather than George's and considering aspects of colonial America relevant to her. Or becoming absorbed in the stories of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and other suffragists who earned women's right to vote. Or spending time with such notables as aviators Amelia Earhart and Jacqueline Cochran, attorneys Belva Lockwood and Sandra Day O'Connor, artists Frida Kahlo and Maya Lin, and government activists Shirley Chisholm and Frances Perkins. Many stories are sad, like that of poet Hannah Senesh who died in the Holocaust. Others have happy endings, like that of African American contralto Marian Anderson whose first Washington concert was canceled because of her race, but who later sang on Easter at the Lincoln Memorial. By refocusing our attention on the achievements of women, we honor their lives as worthy of notice in and of themselves, not as mere adjuncts to the more conventional history that emphasized the stories of men.
In fact, learning more about these women is not just an education; it's an inspiration. As Ken Burns and others have taught us, history is most fascinating when we experience it as story – with characters and accomplishments relevant to our own lives.
Women's history is full of stories that can touch and motivate us today. The next time you go to the ballot box, remember Alice Paul and her friends who endured incarceration and the agony of force-feeding to gain women the right to vote. This spring when you admire the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin, think back to the determined women who put and kept them there. Tomorrow as you turn on your computer, recall Grace Hopper, a U.S. Navy mathematician who paved the way for user-friendly operating systems. Whenever you learn a new skill, compare yourself with Alma Thomas, who began painting abstract art in her sixties and became nationally acclaimed for her work.
The Washington area is a mecca for exploring women's history, whether for the first time or the hundredth, no matter what your age, your particular interest, or your previous level of knowledge. Once we know where to look, we see how often the fabric of history has been stitched by women' s hands.
Discovering Where Women Made a Difference
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Clara Barton, American Red Cross founder.
(File photo)
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Clara Barton National Historic Site
Clara Barton is best known for founding the American Red Cross, but her service to the country covered many areas. A native of Massachusetts, Barton was a patent office clerk in Washington when the Civil War began and because women weren't allowed to enlist she instead decided to help wounded and needy soldiers. During those years, she became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield." After the war she lectured widely in support of the rights of women and African Americans. After working in Europe with the International Red Cross, she founded the American branch in 1881 and served as its president for 23 years. This restored three-story Victorian house was Barton's home and the organization's first permanent headquarters.
Don't Miss: The desk at which Barton worked. Clara Barton National Historic Site; 5801 Oxford Rd., Glen Echo, 301/492-6245. Seen by guided tour only. House tours begin each hour on the hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
Ida B. Wells, journalist
(Library of Congress)
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The Newseum
From anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells to pioneering photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, women have used the media to call attention to important issues. Women journalists – who have often had to fight for professional respect – are highlighted in this museum's News History Gallery. Not all involve life and death topics: Melissa Ludtke earned the right for women sports reporters to enter locker rooms with her 1977 suit against the New York Yankees, and Amelia Bloomer used her 19th-century newspaper to promote a woman's right to wear pants. This museum covers them all in vivid, often-interactive displays.
Don't Miss: The powerful outdoor tribute to journalists, including about 50 women, who died as a result of their work. The Newseum; 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. Metro: Rosslyn. 703/284-3544. Open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
Women in Military Service for America Memorial
Although the area is home to numerous military memorials, until recently none existed solely to honor the 1.8 million women who have served and are currently serving in the defense of America. That omission generated an 11-year effort led by retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, whose dream became reality in October 1997. The majestic white granite memorial includes an exhibit gallery, theater, education center and interactive computer register with biographies and photographs of servicewomen. Women who have served in and with the military are honored at such other area sites as Arlington Cemetery, the Pentagon's women's corridor and the Vietnam Women's Memorial statue on the mall near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Don't Miss: The tribute to Civil War surgeon Mary Walker, the only woman recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, at the main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
Women in Military Service for America Memorial; Main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. Metro: Arlington Cemetery. 703/533-1155. Open daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
Tudor Place
Now a historic house museum, Tudor Place is the Georgetown mansion built for Martha Custis Peter, granddaughter of Martha Washington. Not only is the house notable for its beauty, but for its extensive archives and collection of heirlooms, furniture and other objects, such as a needlepoint cover stitched by Martha Washington. Special tours on Wednesday mornings trace Martha Washington's influence on her granddaughter and great-granddaughter and discuss these 19th-century women's changing social, legal, educational and financial status. Reservations required.
Don't Miss: A letter written by George to Martha when he was in Philadelphia in June 1775. Tudor Place; 1644 31st St. NW. 202/965-0400. Open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for seniors, groups of more than 15; $3 for students; free for children under 6. For the Wednesday Mistress Tour the admission prices are $8, $6 and $4.
Mary McLeod Bethune Council House
National Historic Site
Mary McLeod Bethune journeyed in her lifetime from picking cotton in South Carolina to a position in Franklin Roosevelt's administration. Along the way she started a school in Florida that became Bethune-Cookman College, founded the National Council of Negro Women and befriended Eleanor Roosevelt. This house, which was the council's headquarters and Bethune's Washington home, features her furniture and photographs, as well as permanent and special exhibits. In the carriage house is the National Archives for Black Women's History, an extensive collection available to researchers by appointment. Bethune is also memorialized with a statue in Lincoln Park (13th and East Capitol streets NE), the first in the city honoring a black woman.
Don't Miss: The facsimile of a note from Eleanor Roosevelt to Bethune. Mary McLeod Bethune Council House; 1318 Vermont Ave. NW. Metro: McPherson Square. 202/673-2402. Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Groups larger than 10 must call for reservations. Free.
Eleanor Roosevelt Statue
Renowned for her tireless activism on behalf of women, minorities and the poor, Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential women in American history. As first lady for 12 years, she transformed the largely ceremonial role into one of substance and leadership. She was also chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, a prolific author and the mother of six. Her statue is in an alcove of the sprawling memorial to her husband, President Franklin Roosevelt, which opened in 1997. Roosevelt is also featured prominently in the National Museum of American History's first ladies exhibit and on the White House tour.
Don't Miss: Have your picture taken with Roosevelt, like all the tourists! Eleanor Roosevelt Statue; FDR Memorial, along the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park 202/426-6841. Open daily 8 a.m. to midnight. Free.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
This beautiful Renaissance-style building houses the only museum in the world dedicated solely to works of art by women. The collection features a wide range of international artists, including Elisabetta Sirani, a 17th-century painter of religious scenes; Elisabeth Vige-LeBrun, a court painter to Marie Antoinette and French society; impressionists Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot; Kaethe Kollwitz, a German printmaker and sculptor; and American photographer Berenice Abbott. In addition to the permanent collection, special exhibits focus on particular themes or artists. Don't Miss: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo's "Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky" (1937). National Museum of Women in the Arts; 1250 New York Ave. NW. Metro: Metro Center. 202/783-5000. Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays noon to 5 p.m. Suggested contribution $3, $2 children.
National Museum of American Art
Among women artists whose work appears in this collection is Edmonia Lewis, a gifted sculptor born around 1843. Daughter of a freed black father and a Chippewa mother, Lewis created work influenced by her heritage and life experiences, including racism and violence. She is best known for her portraits of abolitionists and her marble historical sculptures. Other artists exhibited include abstract expressionist Miriam Schapiro, who experimented with women's domestic objects in collages, and Alma Thomas, a Washington public school art teacher who was the first black woman to have a solo exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum. The building also houses the National Portrait Gallery, which exhibits paintings and sculptures of notable Americans from Pocahontas to Julia Ward Howe to Gertrude Stein.
Don't Miss: Edmonia Lewis's massive "Death of Cleopatra" (c. 1875). National Museum of American Art; Eighth and G streets NW. Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown. 202/357-2700. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Free.
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Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.
(File photo by Harry Goodwin)
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Frances Perkins Building
Frances Perkins was working in New York in 1911 when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire started. She arrived on the scene to see women jumping from the windows. Witnessing this disastrous result of lax safety conditions helped launch Perkins into her lifelong dedication to workplace reform. In 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt named her secretary of labor, she became the first woman named to a presidential cabinet. In that position for 12 years, she was instrumental in shepherding into law the Social Security Act, child labor laws and unemployment provisions. In 1980, the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters was renamed for her. A lobby exhibit includes a dedication plaque and photographs. The Labor Hall of Fame nearby features Perkins and labor organizer Mother Jones.
Don't Miss: Perkins's resignation letter (with her edits) that Roosevelt refused to accept. Frances Perkins Building; 200 Constitution Ave. NW. Metro: Judiciary Square. 202/371-6422. Open weekdays 8:30 a.m to 4 p.m.
National Museum of American History
This museum is the place to go for broad coverage of women in U.S. history, from the ever-popular First Ladies' exhibit to the Star-Spangled Banner sewn by Mary Pickersgill to displays featuring a beauty salon and birth control pills to an exploration of 18th-century women shopkeepers. The memorable exhibit, "From Parlor to Politics," traces the instrumental role women played in the Progressive Era (1890-1925) – from forming women's clubs and health and educational organizations, to becoming national catalysts for political and social change. Sections spotlight contributions of D.C. educator Nannie Helen Burroughs, Kentucky nurse-midwife Mary Breckinridge, suffragists Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony, and Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago.
Don't Miss: The museum shop with its large selection of books on women's history. National Museum of American History; 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Metro: Federal Triangle, Smithsonian. 202/357-2700. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Free.
U.S. Capitol
Sometimes women's history is part of such national treasures as the Capitol Rotunda's marble statue of Abraham Lincoln. Vinnie Ream was a 17-year-old, self-taught artist working for the U.S. Post Office when she convinced the president to sit for a bust. After its completion in April 1865, Ream received a federal art commission for the full-size statue –the first woman to receive such an honor. Other notable women represented in the Capitol's National Statuary Hall include Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress; Mother Joseph, a 19th-century nun and architect; and Frances Willard, an educator, suffragist and temperance leader.
Don't Miss: Adelaide Johnson's 1921 Portrait Monument to suffragists Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in the Rotunda. U.S. Capitol; First Street, between Independence and Constitution avenues. Metro: Union Station, Capitol South. 202/224-3121. Open daily 9 a.m to 8 p.m. Free.
Sewall-Belmont House
In 1917, Alice Paul and 80 other women were jailed, placed in solitary confinement and – when they began a hunger strike protesting their treatment – force-fed. Their crime? Trying to gain women's right to vote – including picketing the White House, the first use of that now-popular tactic. Paul's home for more than 40 years and headquarters of the National Woman's Party, this elegant historic house museum, just steps from the Capitol, is where to learn about Paul and the long battle for womens' suffrage. Tours focus on the house's portraits, statues and artifacts of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton, Abigail Adams and Joan of Arc, as well as banners, photographs and such furniture as Anthony's rolltop desk and Paul's four-poster bed. Don't Miss: The film that follows the movement to its eventual success in 1920. Sewall-Belmont House; 144 Constitution Ave. NE. Metro: Union Station, Capitol South. 202/546-1210. Open, with tours on the hour, Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturdays noon to 4 p.m. A donation of $2 or $3 is suggested.
Jacci Duncan and Lynn Page Whittaker are the authors of "The Women's History Guide to Washington," which features more than 50 sites, and is published by Charles River Press. For more information, call 703/519-9197.
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