News Release

19th Amendment Centennial

The house illuminated in the yellow, white, and purple of the suffrage movement.

NPS

News Release Date: August 28, 2020

Contact: Chris Beagan, [phone]

Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site joined in celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment this month. A highlight was participating in the nation-wide "Forward Into Light" illumination on the evening of August 26, 2020.

The park hosted a live, virtual lving history event on August 23, "Abby Hutchinson's Sweet Freedom Songs," with living historian Deborah Anne Goss, as Abby Hutchinson, leading the virtual audience into the world of anti-slavery and women's rights, with songs, readings, and recollections that connected these two movements. Abby Hutchinson was a member of the the Hutchinson Family Singers, performer/activists of the 1840s and 1850s.

A new video, Samuel Longfellow, the Suffragist, examines the outspoken support for women's suffrage and other progressive moments of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's younger brother, and asks the audience, what does it mean to be an effective ally?

In addition, the site produced a video, web article, and a series of social media posts that highlight the complexities of suffrage and the Longfellows' roles in the movement, including: Alice Longfellow: A Silent Suffragist, Race and Suffrage, Fanny Longfellow and Anti-suffrage, How Suffrage Got Ratified in Tennessee, and The Voting Ladies of Longfellow.