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An exhibit on \u201cRecognizing Women\u2019s Right to Vote\u201d will be displayed in SUNY Cortland\u2019s Memorial Library through the month of February.
On loan from the South Central Regional Library Council, the exhibit may be viewed on the first floor between the Advisement and Transition Office and Bookmark Caf\u00e9.
It celebrates the right of women to vote and covers an era of American, and particularly, New York, history from pre-revolutionary times to the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920.
\u201cThis is an important exhibit demonstrating the movers and shakers of the women\u2019s suffrage movement in New York,\u201d said Archivist and Instructional Services Librarian Jeremy Pekarek. \u201cThis exhibit is typically in high demand around our region. We could not reserve it for Women\u2019s History Month but decided to display it during the month of February.
\u201cWe have local activists who took part in the national movement such as Amelia Jenks Bloomer,\u201d Pekarek said.
The famed early women\u2019s rights advocate was born in Homer in 1818 and fought for women\u2019s suffrage, national dress reform and founded The Lily newspaper, providing a voice for women during that era, he said.
\u201cLydia Strowbridge, who came to live in Cortland, was a pioneer of medicine who advocated for abolition and women\u2019s suffrage.\u201d
Pekarek noted several local pioneers in women\u2019s rights issues who are not featured in the exhibit but deserve recognition, including:
Helen E.A. Timko \u201938 was elected as the first female student council president at the Cortland Normal School in 1937.
In 1941, Susan West became the first woman elected to the County Board of Supervisors for Cortland County.
Margaret Dexter was elected as a Cortland City Council alderperson in the 1950s, the first woman to hold this title.
Mary Ruth Boone Jacobus \u201865 created the first Cortland chapter for the League of Women Voters and participated in numerous events, especially regarding the 26th Amendment debate on raising the voting age.
For more information on this exhibit, contact Pekarek<\/a> at 607-753-2759. Visitors are expected to follow SUNY Cortland\u2019s COVID-19 safety policies, which include wearing a face covering at all times while in indoor spaces.
Learn more about the exhibit from New York Heritage\u2019s digital collections website<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n