Past Featured Exhibits

Year  2020 museum show focused on women from Wisconsin who bravely fought the battle for women's rights and 
noted some of the first positions held by women in Stoughton.  Unfortunately due to Covid-19 the museum had very 
limited hours of operation in 2020.

"On June 10, 1919, Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the 19th amendment granting national suffrage to women.  
From 1846 to 1919, different groups of women's rights supporters had focused much of their energy on winning the vote, 
though each pursued different strategies.  Although Wisconsin had not been completely unenlightened in its approach to women's 
legal rights (the rejected 1846 constitution would have given married women property rights), neither had it been on the forefront 
of the cause.  Just seven years before the 19th amendment passed, a statewide Wisconsin referendum on suffrage met with a 
resounding two-to-one defeat. so it was in some ways unusual that Wisconsin was the first to ratify federal woman suffrage."
Link:  www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-032/

Illinois hoped to be the first state to ratify the amendment.  On June 10th, 1919 Illinois lawmakers believed they had achieved that goal.  However in their zeal to be first, the legislature inadvertently voted to approve the wrong language.  Another vote was taken on June 17th, 1919 and Illinois became the seventh state to ratify the 19th amendment.  Illinois and the 19th Amendment

"The Wisconsin Women's Suffrage Association (WWSA) was formed in 1869 to begin an organized suffrage campaign. Besides facing the objections made everywhere to women's political equality, many suffrage activists in Wisconsin were also leaders in the temperance movement, which generated hostility from the state's powerful brewing industry and from German Americans."  Link:  Wisconsin History Turning Points

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Harriet Grim Link:  https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM84876
Harriet Grim Speaking from a vehicle bearing a banner that reads, "votes for women." 
She is stopped in front of T.G. Mandt's wagon shop.
HARRIET GRIM RECORD DETAILS FROM THE COLLECTION OF WISCONSIN HISTORY
Image ID: 84876Creation Date: 1912
Creator Name: UnknownCity: StoughtonCounty: DaneState: Wisconsin
Collection Name: James, Ada Lois, 1876-1952 : Ada Lois papers, 1816-1952
Genre: Photograph
Original Format Type: photographic print, b&w
Original Format Number: PH 1253Original Dimensions: 2.5 x 4 inches