"California Woman Suffrage" Exhibition

"California Woman Suffrage" will be a featured exhibition at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum in Micke Grove Regional Park. The special exhibition can be viewed Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., from January 18, 2015, through March 15, 2015. The exhibition chronicles the struggle of California women to gain the right to vote. The first state-wide vote for women?s suffrage in California was in 1896, when Susan B. Anthony organized the campaign. That amendment failed. But in 1911, California suffragists convinced Progressive Republicans to again place suffrage on the ballot. Determined suffragists drove from town to town across the state campaigning for California constitutional amendment number 8. On Election Day, October 10, 1911, they handed out more than three million brochures and stood watch at polling places to insure all votes were counted. Knowing of strong opposition by saloon and business interests, the suffragists focused their campaign on rural districts. The early returns were discouraging. The amendment was soundly defeated in San Francisco and newspapers declared that the effort had apparently failed. When the voting returns from the rural counties came in several days later, the amendment narrowly passed. California became the sixth state to give women the vote, joining Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Washington. With the passage in California, the number of women with full suffrage in the U.S. doubled. The exhibition was originally developed by the International Museum of Women and the California History Center Foundation. It is toured by Exhibit Envoy, which provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California (see www.exhibitenvoy.org). The San Joaquin County Historical Society operates the 18-acre Museum and provides education programs for school groups, including ?Valley Days? and ?Pioneer School Day? (in the 1866 Calaveras School). The Museum is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. For more information see www.SanJoaquinHistory.org.