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Go exploring where American women made history
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- You can read about the great women of American history. You can catch lectures about them. Or you can get in the car and drive.
America is celebrating their contributions during Women's History Month in March. But all year long, museums and historic sites across the country pay homage to the women who made a difference. And travelers often go out of their way to find them. "I think there are some sites that really call to people that way," said Molly Murphy MacGregor, president and co-founder of the National Women's History Project. 'Hallowed ground'MacGregor's organization is sponsoring a summer tour of women's sites in the Northeast. And ground zero is Seneca Falls, New York, an early capital of the modern women's rights movement. Seneca Falls is where the first Women's Rights Convention was held in 1848. The Women's Rights National Historical Park there includes the Wesleyan Chapel, where the convention was held, and the home of movement leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Park ranger Jack Shay said about 25,000 to 30,000 people visit the park each year, some going well out of their way to make the pilgrimage. "We do have some people who view this as very hallowed ground, almost like Independence Hall in Philadelphia," he said. Also in Seneca Falls is the National Women's Hall of Fame, which recognizes great women of American history, from Abigail Adams and Louisa May Alcott to Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Homes of heroinesNew York state has a remarkable concentration of other notable women's history landmarks. Fifteen miles to the east, in Auburn, New York, is the home of Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of Southern slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. And 40 miles to the west in Rochester is the home of Susan B. Anthony, the leader of the women's suffrage movement whose work led to giving women the right to vote. On the other side of New York, a good 250 miles from Seneca Falls, is the home of Eleanor Roosevelt, who helped reshape the role of presidential spouse through her political and social activism. The Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, about two hours north of New York City, includes Val-Kill Cottage, the small stone house to which she often retreated as an alternative to the more formal Roosevelt family home nearby. Visitors can also take in the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, which includes the president's lifelong home and the Presidential Library and Museum. New Women's MuseumOne of the newest destinations related to women is the Women's Museum in Dallas, Texas, which recognizes women's achievements in sports, space, politics, religion and more. The $30 million museum, which opened last fall in an old livestock arena, features hundreds of artifacts, including Eleanor Roosevelt's war-time Red Cross uniform and a flight suit worn by aviator Amelia Earhart. A tour of important sites for women ought to include the museum, marketing director Jacqueline Bell said. "We are the only comprehensive women's history museum in the nation," she said. Women in Washington
The nation's capital also features a large number of sites honoring women. One important destination is the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which describes itself as the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to contributions of female artists. A current exhibition features 87 works by painter Anna Mary Robertson, "Grandma" Moses, an upstate New York farmer and homemaker who became a folk art sensation. It runs through June 10. The museum's permanent collection features works from the 16th century to the present, including artists Camille Claudel, Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt and Frida Kahlo. Sewall-Belmont, SmithsonianAnother stop is the Sewall-Belmont House, the headquarters of the National Woman's Party founded by Alice Paul, who spearheaded the drive to give women the right to vote. She also drafted the Equal Rights Amendment, which has yet to be ratified. The house, one of the Washington's oldest, includes portraits and busts of prominent movement leaders, artifacts and historic furniture, including a desk at which Susan B. Anthony worked on the 19th Amendment. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History also has several exhibitions devoted specifically to women's contributions. They include "First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image," which looks at the evolving role of the president's wife. It features many artifacts, illustrations and photos, including a gallery of gowns worn by the first ladies. Adjacent to that is "From Parlor to Politics: Women and Reform in America, 1890-1925," which looks at women who made significant political and social contributions during the so-called Progressive Era. Also in Washington, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, across from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, honors the nearly 10,000 women who served in Vietnam during the war and the families who lost loved ones. The bronze statue shows three servicewomen and a wounded soldier. At the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, another Women's Memorial honors women who served in the armed forces throughout the nation's history. In nearby Glen Echo, Maryland, the Clara Barton National Historic Site commemorates the life of Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross. Making history in MassachusettsMassachusetts also boasts a wealth of sites recognizing women.
Among the many historical tours in Boston is the Boston Women's Heritage Trail, which features nine walks throughout the city examining four centuries of women's contributions. The tour includes the homes of suffragist Julia Ward Howe and author Louisa May Alcott, and the spot where the slave ship carrying poet Phillis Wheatley landed, Other notable Massachusetts sites include The Mount in Lenox, the western Massachusetts home that writer Edith Wharton designed and lived in from 1902 to 1911. She wrote "The House of Mirth" there, and her winter visits are said to have inspired her to write "Ethan Frome." It's open to the public from Memorial Day to November 1. The Mary Baker Eddy House in Lynn, Massachusetts, is where the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist completed her work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She later moved to a more palatial home in Newton, Massachusetts, which also is a house museum. Sites across countryIn the Midwest, travelers can visit the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum on the University of Illinois at Chicago. Addams founded the famed Hull-House social settlement, which provided many services for the surrounding multiethnic neighborhood on Chicago's Near West Side in 1889. The museum features original furnishings, paintings, photographs and rotating exhibits that recreate the history of the settlement and the work of its residents. There are hundreds of sites across the country honoring individual women or local women's movements. For more information, see related sites below. RELATED STORIES:
New Dallas museum honors women who made a difference RELATED SITES:
National Women's Hall of Fame |
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