Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council President Melissa Fox will illustrate how in 1917 area women joined the largest wartime mobilization of their young country. Long-time ideas about food, children, and factory life suddenly took off when women were granted a federal mandate by the establishment of Woman’s Committees by the Council of National Defense. […]

Join us for a riveting account of the stories of early local pastors’ wives! When Janet Sjaarda Sheeres was editing a 700-page tome on early synod minutes of the Christian Reformed Church (1857-1880), she realized that she had waded into an all-male world, where women’s concerns were seldom considered and their stories never recorded. Sheeres immediately […]

Calvin College History Colloquium! Upon U.S. entry into WWI, national women's groups transformed their organizational structures for war work. Grand Rapids women were among midwestern leaders whose pioneering efforts have been too long neglected. Get ahead of history--credit them!

The nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history; the fight to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor […]

Discover how to use archival collections to go beyond basic facts and dates and learn more about who your ancestors were. Julie Tabberer will illustrate how to think creatively and find primary sources that may contain unexpected information. Archives hold unique and rich material that can be particularly helpful for researching women and people of […]