Drama and music celebrate women at BRM

Posted by Karen Myers on March 9, 2020

The Justice Bell was created in the image of the Liberty Bell and was used in suffrage parades across the country. This replica was a commission to bring the suffrage story to a modern generation.

The Brandywine River Museum of Art celebrated International Women’s Day Sunday with song, drama, interactive art and two galleries devoted to the historical struggle to vote.

A Library of Congress map shpws the progressin of states that allowed women to vote. “I was surprised to learn that western US states gave women the vote so much earlier,” said visitor Hilary Frost, referring to the Library of Congress map. Like today, blue and red are used to illustrate each state’s progress.

“People have been surprised by this exhibition,” said Amanda Burdan, curator of Votes for Women: A Visual History. “But it fits perfectly with Brandywine Museum’s strong background in illustration.” The exhibit marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteen Amendment and honors the achievement of the women who fought so hard for the right to vote.

The exhibition documents the use of illustration and media to advance women’s suffrage. Cartoons illustrating men’s worst fears of women voting include children abandoned to their father’s inept care in Joseph Keppler’s “Wife out Electioneering” from Puck Magazine.

“Postcards were the memes of their time,” said Burdan. The suffrage movement used magazines, posters, cartoons, banners, buttons as wells as postcard illustrations to advance their cause and fight bias.

A popup collaborative experience by the Museum of Impact of Washington D.C. encouraged visitors to create their own buttons, write letters to inspirational women and work together on a puzzle featuring women suffragists.

“Our principal message is about standing up, speaking up and acting up for what’s right for the community benefit and for your values,” said Monica Montgomery, founder of the Museum of Impact. “People don’t know what to do to make the world a better place, so our memory game outlines actions like donating to a relief fund, doing a community clean up, and tutoring.”

The exhibition also includes a mural by five local artists devoted to hidden figures of the movement. “I am still surprised by the number of women of color who participated in the suffrage movement. Most history focuses on a small number of central women, but women of color participated within their own communities and within their own broad realm of activism,” said Burdan.

The Lincoln University Choir and Woman's Ensemble perform at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. “We’ve never performed in a space like this,” said Bria Rouse, a member of the Lincoln University Choir and Woman’s Ensemble.

The Lincoln University Choir and Woman’s Ensemble celebrated this activism with music that included pieces written by women, about women and about struggle, like the beautiful, “No Mirrors in my Nana’s House” and “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning.” The group’s finale was greeted with rousing applause that filled the three-story museum.

Beacon Theatre Productions presented the play “Under the Bonnet” which underscores the link between women’s rights and abolition. Actors portraying Lucretia Mott, a local abolitionist and co-founder of Swarthmore College, her husband James Mott and Frederick Douglass weave across the stage and illustrate the ties between the abolitionist movement and the suffrage movement.

Witness to History serves as a companion piece to the Votes for Women exhibition and displays photographs from the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Stephen Somerstein’s photographs capture the raw emotions of the marchers, organizers, protestors, and bystanders to this historic march for voting rights.

Brandywine Museum partnered with Kennett Middle School to create suffragette posters for the Imagine Brandywine exhibit. The museum worked with teachers on visual communication lesson plans. The posters use images, well-known characters and words to convey a message.

For a greater understanding of how past generations fought to achieve that right to the vote, view the exhibition before June 7. Further information is available at www.brandywine.org/museum.

About Karen Myers

Karen Myers lives in Pocopson Township and has written for several local publications. A strong supporter of our community, Karen has served on several non-profit boards, such as Pocopson Elementary PTO, The United Way of Southern Chester County, Chester County Art Association and Tick Tock Early Learning Center. She received her M.B.A. from the University of Delaware and worked in marketing and operations with a focus on banking.