Are you in Ohio for the Republican Convention? Download our NWHP 2016 Republican Convention Guide to Women’s History in Ohio! This guide is full of great information about women’s history in the Cleveland area and elsewhere in Ohio.
Several firsts belong to Ohio women, including the first woman to run for president of the United States, Victoria C. Woodhull, an Ohio native who ran in 1872, Jerrie Mock, who was the first woman to fly solo around in the world in 1964, and Ellen Walker Craig-Jones, the first African-American woman elected mayor of an American municipality in Urbancrest, Ohio in 1971. Oberlin College was the first co-educational college in the United States, admitting its first women in 1837. Ohio was active in the suffrage movement and was the home of Harriet Taylor Upton, a leader in Ohio and treasurer of the National Woman Suffrage Association (1894 – 1910). It was in Akron, Ohio that Sojourner Truth gave her famous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech.
Here are a few more highlights in Cleveland:
- The International Women’s Air and Space Museum. Founded in 1986, this museum is located minutes from the Rock and Roll Museum at the Burke Lakefront Airport. The mission of the International Women’s Air & Space Museum is to preserve the history of women in aviation and space and to document their continuing contributions today and in the future.
- The statue of Helen Keller, erected in 1965, highlights her work as a humanitarian and activist for the deaf and deaf-blind, located in the Talking Garden for the Blind in Rockefeller Park. The park is at 750 E. 88th Street.
- The bust of Marie Sklodwoska Curie, erected in 2009, is located int he Polish Cultural Garden at the corner of Clair and East Boulevard in Cleveland. Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize.
If you can make it to nearby Canton, Ohio, you’ll also find the First Ladies Museum, founded in 2000, which is located in the historic Saxton McKinley House at 331 S. Market Avenue, Canton, Ohio. You’ll also find in Canton a statue of First Lt. Sharon Lane, erected in 1973, honoring an Army Corps nurse who served in Vietnam.
Other Ohio cities with women’s history museum, gardens, statues, and monuments include Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Granville, Greenville, Martin’s Ferry, Springfield, and Warren.
Come back soon for our full guide to the Republican Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
The challenge for women’s history is that so little is preserved in stone and granite or in museums. NWHP is committed to Writing Women Back into History! Please join us to help preserve women’s history sites and areas throughout the United States to ensure that we can pass on our distinctive history, embodying the legacy of freedom, community, entrepreneurship, science, music, art, sports, philanthropy, conservation, and women’s leadership.
NWHP 2016 Republican Convention Guide to Women’s History in Ohio
NOTE: We worked to include all women’s history sites that are open to the public. As such, what is here is only a fraction of the landscape of American women’s diverse contributions to America and their communities. We are also aware that as new women’s history sites are being developed, others are being lost and so change is constant. If you see any errors or omissions, we invite you to let us know so we can correct the guides. If you are interested in learning more about the gaps and what is being lost, we highly recommend Lynn Sherr’s Susan B. Anthony Slept Here: A Guide to American Women’s Landmarks (1994). We estimate that as many as half of the wonderful landmarks that Lynn identifies are not open to the public or no longer exist. Lynn Sherr was honored by the NWHP in 2015 and is a wonderful resource on women’s history.