At 6 pm on a Thursday evening in early April, it’s still 68 degree outside and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. As Washington Capital fans stream past the National Portrait Gallery, twenty-one people are still walking through “Votes for Women” exhibit in Washington, D.C.
National Portrait Gallery
As I walk through counting visitors, I notice in the first gallery a middle aged African-American man closely looking at the portraits and labels. After walking through the hallway and the other five gallery rooms I sit down to jot a few notes. A minute later, this man pauses in the hallway to answer my questions- What brought him here today? How often does he visit? What had he learned so far?
“I learned in two and a half minutes that an African American was ejected from a movie theater, and won 500 dollars! Let me see,” he pauses, “Sarah Parker Remond was her name.”
Harry Wheaton, a 55 year old native Washingtonian, volunteered that he visits the National Portrait Gallery five or six times a year. Today, he was just looking to get out of the house for a bit and noticed this exhibit while walking the hallways of the gallery.
I asked his first impression, “Women wearing the pants was the first image I saw in the exhibit.” Amelia Bloomer, a temperance advocate and founder of the ‘The Lily’, is also popularly know for the pants-like clothes she wore. Her portrait hangs in the first gallery, Radical Women.
A close reading of the first gallery shows 14th amendment, while extending the franchise to Negros, specified “male”, thus thwarting the women’s movement to gain the vote in national elections. This would lead to complicated relationships and competing agendas on the way to the 19th commandment.
When the museum closes an hour later, the security guard ushered the last three of us out of the exhibit. I caught up with the final two visitors of the day on the steps outside the building. They were a mother and daughter visting from Washington state on spring break.
“It was really good” the daughter offered. They’d come to see the Kehinde Wiley portrait of President Obama and the “Votes for Women” exhibit. She mentioned her recent school project of Alice Walker as her connection to the exhibit. Her mom noticed an artifact in the exhibit. “I didn’t expect the banner. I wish we’d had more time.”
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“Votes For Women: A Portrait of Persistence” is curated by Dr. Kate Clarke Lemay and is on view at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery thru January 5, 2020. Open daily from 11 am – 7 pm
