Resources for Celebrating Suffrage in Utah

August 17, 2020

It’s 19th Amendment centennial week! As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we honor the women (and men) who worked for women’s equal voting rights long before and long after 1920. We’ve been creating resources to help you learn about this history for the past 3 years!

• If you’re an educator or homeschooler, check out our lesson plans and activities for students from elementary to high school! Each lesson is based on primary sources with rich imagery, historical background, lesson materials, and optional extensions.
• We also have reviews and discussion questions for books about suffrage, blog posts about voting rights history in Utah and nationally, coloring pages and other activities, and videos highlighting diverse women in Utah history and various aspects of suffrage in Utah.
• Don’t miss the Utah Division of Archives and Records Services’ site on Suffrage and Stories of Utah Women, with a visual timeline of documents that tell the Utah suffrage story from the suffrage law in 1870 through our ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1919! The Archives also has a great blog post series highlighting women in state records like elected representatives and community leaders.
• The Woman’s Exponent digital exhibit is a collaboration between the University of Utah (Digital Matters Lab and the Marriott Library) and Brigham Young University (Office of Digital Humanities and the Lee Library). This periodical published in SLC from 1872-1914 shared news of women’s rights, the LDS Relief Society, and suffrage organizations across the U.S. and worldwide—you can explore the paper by topic in the digital exhibit. The project also added text-searchable digital scans of the Exponent to the University of Utah’s digital newspaper database!
• Last but not least, we collaborated with the Utah Division of State History on this beautiful StoryMap, which shows how Utah and the West led the way for women’s suffrage. There are great maps showing the spread of suffrage from state to state before the ratification of the 19th Amendment, as well as maps highlighting where Utah women were elected to state and county office from 1896 to 1920.

If you’d rather listen to your suffrage history, there are two terrific podcasts specific to Utah women! Both are available at the links or wherever you get your podcasts:

• Zion’s Suffragists, a dynamic podcast hosted by Dianna Douglas, shares the fascinating and complicated history of women’s voting rights in Utah and highlights the activism of women of color.
• This is Her Place, hosted by Naomi Watkins and Tom Williams, pairs stories of women in the past with women in the present who are working on the same issues—whether it’s public health, art, law enforcement, or more.

Our Better Days 2020 team has also published three books in the past year that tell the story of women’s work for suffrage in Utah. They’re available at local bookstores and online.

• Pioneering the Vote: the Untold Story of Suffragists in the West, by Neylan McBaine, shares the story of early suffrage victories in the West.
• Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah is a photo-rich book that follows the story of suffrage in Utah from roughly 1870 to 1920, co-authored by BD2020 historians Rebekah Clark and Katherine Kitterman.
• And Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History features illustrations by Brooke Smart paired with the stories of women (and a man) who made a difference in Utah history. Co-authored by Naomi Watkins and Katherine Kitterman.

Take some time to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by learning more about women right here in Utah who shaped that story and who continued fighting for voting rights and representation! Click here for last week’s post about national museum exhibits and other resources on the national story of women’s voting rights.