Portrait Gallery historian Kate Clarke Lemay and Professor Lara Vapnek, author of Breadwinners: Working Women and Economic Independence 1865-1920, will delve into the long history of suffrage activism in the United States. On Aug. 18, 1920, the movement for women’s voting rights culminated in Tennessee’s vote to ratify the 19th amendment, providing the two-thirds majority of states needed for the amendment to become law. The conversation will highlight Leonora O’Reilly, a “working girl” from New York City who became a leading suffrage advocate, and whose portrait is in the museum’s collection. This conversation will also serve as an early celebration of Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26.
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