I’ve recently “Liked” some new Facebook pages related to History, some specifically about Women’s History, and through these have discovered some wonderful resources that I want to highlight.
Is Mise – on Facebook
Is Mise is a Facebook page “By, For, and About Women” managed by Tracy Livingston a cultural anthropologist. She has wonderful posts and I highly recommend “liking” her page if you are on Facebook.
Century of Action: Women Get the Vote
One of the websites I found through Is Mise is the “Century of Action: Women Get the Vote“, the website of the Oregon Women’s History Consortium.
When the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920, many women had been voting for quite a while. Fifteen states had given women full suffrage and others had received the right to vote in various types of elections. One hundred years ago, in 1912, the women of Oregon won the right to vote. In honor of this event, the Oregon Women’s History Consortium has been formed to “lead the centennial celebration of woman suffrage and to promote women’s history beyond 2012.” At their website you can find information about the long fight in Oregon, the women who spear-headed that fight, documents, and current news and events.
Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II
During WWII, women did countless jobs to free men to fight. We often think about Rosy the Riveter and women who went into the workforce for the first time, but women also went into the military for the first time in jobs other than nursing. Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II is a documentary film about the women who volunteered for service in the Navy during the war. At the website and blog for the film, you can find wonderful exhibits, pictures, and stories of these women as well as a trailer for the movie to be released in August 2012. They have both a Facebook page and a website.
The Zinn Education Project
If you’ve never read Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States, it is well worth the time. In the book, Zinn looks at our history from a different perspective than the typical history book and tells the stories of people whose voices are often not heard. The Zinn Education Project is primarily targeted toward using Zinn’s book in the classroom, but it’s website contains many resources which will be of interest to anyone interested in United States history. You can explore by theme or time period and narrow the target audience to a specific age group. This site is not limited to women’s history, but we are certainly represented there. They also have a Facebook page.
National Women’s History Museum
I’ve mentioned the National Women’s History Museum before, but I wanted to remind you of it. If you are on Facebook, be sure to “Like” their page. They frequently have posts of the “Today in History” type specifically related to women.
Just a little nugget from this week – During the Revolutionary War, Thursday April 26, 1777 was the day that Sybil Ludington rode all night on horseback to warn local troops that the British were attacking. Her father was a colonel in the militia and she was barely sixteen, but she rode all night covering roughly 40 miles. She accomplished her mission and the men gathered together the next morning to fight. Paul Revere covered less distance and was memorialized in a poem, but Sybil was just a girl helping out her dad.
Actually, there are a couple of statues of Sybil and she has her own stamp, but I had never heard of her. There are so many things we weren’t taught in school!
Howard Zinn’s book is one of the best US History books I’ve ever read. It really shatters all the myths we were taught in history class in elementary, middle and high school and opened my eyes as to how history can be viewed from all vantage points.
Susan – I found Howard Zinn’s book when I was just looking for a general book on US History. After reading reviews, I decided to read 2 US History books. One was written by someone from a more right leaning political view point and then Zinn’s book. One thing that impressed me is the other author made a point in his introduction of saying that he was going to “correct” the version of history told by historians such as Zinn, to tell the “truth”. Zinn on the other had said in his introduction that history is ALWAYS told from a particular perspective even if it’s only in the events one chooses to write about. Reading both books was really eye opening. I learned from both books, but like you I learned so much more from Zinn’s book because we weren’t taught those things in high school.
So glad you found the blog. I’m looking forward to your insights and postings (hopefully). Thanks for reading.
I never heard of Sybil….Isn’t that ironic? She’s just a girl helping her Dad….he’s a revolutionary. Something smells!!!!