The Holland Museum Celebrates Women’s History Month
The Holland Museum celebrates Women’s History Month
February 20, 2024: Another great month of entertaining education at the Holland Museum
On Thursday March 7, the Museum hosts a free virtual Tales from the Archives presentation at 7pm. entitled, Lavina Cappon, Suffrage, and Women’s Rights in Dutch Midwest America. Isaac Cappon’s daughter Lavina was a suffragist—quite a radical position for a prominent woman in a Midwest Dutch American community in the days before 1920 when a U.S. Constitutional amendment gave women the vote. For the Cappon 150th year and this Women’s History Month, join author and historian Barbara Walvoord as she explores suffrage movement in Holland, in the context of the lives of Dutch American women at the turn of the 20th century. Walvoord was raised in Holland, daughter of the Rev. Christian H. Walvoord and Marie Verduin Walvoord, who served Third Reformed Church in the 1950’s. A graduate of Hope College, she later taught at the Reformed Church’s Central College in Pella, Iowa, where she worked for women’s rights in the college and the town. Her recent book is Women’s Rights in Midwest Dutch America, 1847-1979: A History and Memoir (Wit & Intellect Publishing, 2023).
On March 11th, as part of the Free 2nd Monday event, the Museum welcomes the entire family to Wow! Wonderful Outstanding Woman. Learn about women inventors, scientists, entrepreneurs, writers and artists in the History and Dutch Galleries with a fun scavenger hunt. Listen to stories about the important contributions that women like astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, poet Amanda Gorman, and scientist Temple Grandin have made in the world. In Spark!Lab Smithsonian, follow in the footsteps of astronauts and scientists Mae Jemison and Grand Rapids native Christina Koch with our space-themed experiments and activities. Make an origami tulip inspired by local hero and Tulip Time creator Lida Rogers, read the news like Holland radio personality Lupita Reyes, get your photo taken as Rosie the Riveter, and much more!
Join the Museum for the free Cultural Lens program and celebrate National Rosie the Riveter Day with Heroes of the Homefront: Rosie the Riveter and the Women Who Helped Win the War, on Thursday, March 21, 2024, 7:00-8:30 pm. Rosie the Riveter symbolized the millions of women who joined the workforce, filling jobs left by men fighting in WWII. The Museum’s own education and volunteer coordinator, Deb Wake will discuss how the government convinced these heroes to leave their homes, roll up their sleeves, and help get the job done. She will also present the challenges these women faced in the workforce and in society, their contributions in West Michigan and beyond, changes on the home front, and what happened to Rosie after WWII. Wake is a member of the American Rosie the Riveter Association and former president of the WOW Chapter of SW Michigan. She has written numerous articles for the Association's website about Rosie and America's home front during WWII.
“Our March programs celebrate women in our country and our community, and there is truly something for everyone,” says Executive Director Ricki Levine. “We invite the whole community to join us for one or all of our March events.”
To register and for more information on these programs, please visit the Holland Museum’s website: www.hollandmuseum.org.
About the Holland Museum: The Holland Museum’s mission is Preserving Our Past, Imagining Our Future. The Holland Museum is located at the corner of 10th Street and River Avenue, across from Centennial Park at 31 West 10th Street.
For more information, please call (616) 796-3329.