THE U.S. CAPITAL PAYS HOMAGE TO MANY HEROINES OF AMERICAN history, from suffragettes to painters, war veterans to politicians. For an authentic D.C. experience, check in with groups like the National Organization of Women or Code Pink to review the major issues of the day before lobbying your elected officials. Then visit the following locales:
• In 1929, women’s rights leader Alice Paul opened the headquarters of the National Women’s Party at the Sewall-Belmont House at 144 Constitution Avenue, NE. There, she wrote the Equal Rights Amendment and rallied for its passage. Today, the museum offers hour-long tours of its extensive collection of women’s suffrage memorabilia, plus a short video, Equal Rights Amendment: Unfinished Business for the Constitution.
• Every statistic about the Library of Congress astounds: the largest library in the world, it has more than 130 million items stacked on 532 miles of bookshelves. Its collection on the women’s suffrage movement is exhaustive, including Susan B. Anthony’s personal library and the three-volume History of Women’s Suffrage penned by Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage. Be sure to visit the giant mosaic of Minerva, goddess of wisdom and knowledge, atop the grand staircase in the library’s main foyer. According to docent Amy Schapiro, her feet follow you as you turn the corner!
• The Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the ceremonial entrance of Arlington National Cemetery pays respects to the 2 million women who have defended the United States since the American Revolution. At its heart is the register, where photos, oral histories, and stories can be accessed via the computerized database. Many are devastating in their simplicity: “[My most memorable experience was] befriending a young Korean boy in Seoul, Korea in 1975 for five to six months, only to find him frozen in a hole in the wall outside the compound,” writes Joan Humes, an Army staff sergeant from Philadelphia.
• Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay began collecting art by women in the 1960s, when scholars and historians were just beginning to debate their underrepresentation in museums and galleries. The National Museum of Women in the Arts was incorporated in 1981 and housed in a couple of offices before settling at 1250 New York Avenue, NW. The permanent collection now boasts more than three thousand works from the sixteenth century to the present, including selections by Frida Kahlo, Rosa Bonheur, Camille Claudel, Elaine de Kooning, and Käthe Kollwitz.