Fourth Annual Midwestern History Conference

Ralph W. Hauenstein Center, GVSU downton campus

The Long Reach of Midwestern Women into the WWI Council of National Defense and 1918 Children's Programs - We have offered a panel presentation for this day-long conference in Grand Rapids. Admission will be free, including a complimentary lunch, and is open to the public. The program is the second in a three-year GGRWHC project illustrating […]

Hollyhock Lane Parade

Ottawa Hills neighborhood, Grand Rapids, MI

Back by popular demand, the GGRWHC will take to the streets to honor parading suffragists from a hundred years ago. Watch for details & join the fun with bands, bicyclists, candy, and placards! To quote a past participant: this event is “oddly exhilarating”!

Takeover! West Michigan Suffragists and the 1914 Grand Rapids Press

Holland Museum 31 W. 10th Street, Holland, MI, United States

Wolfgast Knocked Out by a Suffragist: Former Champion Goes Down in Three Rounds in Battle of Words” headlined the sports page of the May 2, 1914, edition of the Grand Rapids Press, when local suffragists took over production of the newspaper for the day. The takeover was a result of the National American Woman Suffrage […]

Beyond Her Grave Bicycle Tour: The Legacies of Women Buried in Fulton Street and Oakhill Cemeteries

Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States

Sponsored by She Rides Her Own Way, the Grand Rapids Public Library’s GR Reads program, and the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, a one-of-a-kind bicycle tour will make stops at Fulton Street and Oakhill cemeteries, highlighting remarkable as well as lesser-known local women, who have made a difference in the history of our city.  

Beyond Her Grave Bicycle Tour: The Legacies of Women Buried in Fulton Street and Oakhill Cemeteries

Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States

Sponsored by She Rides Her Own Way, the Grand Rapids Public Library’s GR Reads program, and the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, a one-of-a-kind bicycle tour will make stops at Fulton Street and Oakhill cemeteries, highlighting remarkable as well as lesser-known local women, who have made a difference in the history of our city.  

Observance of Women’s Equality Day

Check for us at food-truck Thursday on the patio of the Grand Rapids Art Museum! Once again, we will buttonhole passers-by about the 98th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and remind them of the centennial of constitutionally guaranteed universal suffrage in 2020! We’ll have great local history materials.

Susan B. Anthony Slept Here! National Suffrage Strategy & 1899 West Michigan

Holland Museum 31 W. 10th Street, Holland, MI, United States

  Susan B. Anthony had visited West Michigan many times, but her last appearance was at the 1899 NAWSA annual convention in Grand Rapids, the only time the National American Woman Suffrage Association met in Michigan. Using images and period language, Jo Ellyn Clarey of the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council will recreate the feel of […]

Diana Barrett – WWI Women’s Cards

Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States

During the week of April 27th through May 4th 1918, twenty thousand Grand Rapids women, half the city’s female population, registered for the war effort. One thousand registrars were trained to conduct a twenty-to-thirty-minute interview with each woman. Her information was recorded on a 5 X 8 card, designed and printed in Washington DC and […]

Lisa McCubbin – Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

Hear Lisa McCubbin discuss her new book, Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor and Trailblazer. It is based on intimate in-depth interviews with family friends and colleagues. McCubbin reveals a fiercely independent woman who had a lively sense of humor, unwavering faith, and an indomitable spirit - the true story behind of the most […]