“To me, it was shocking that a government of men could look with such extreme contempt on a movement that was asking nothing except such a simple little thing as the right to vote.”-Alice Paul
One of the littler, out of the way stops we made on our great East Coast trip was to the Seal Cove Auto Museum, which was super fun. It’s in Seal Cove, Maine, on one of the islands that make up Acadia National Park. They are a smaller museum. I think the volunteers outnumbered people visiting by far, but everything was in really good order. Their main exhibit while we were there was how transportation, especially cars, really helped the Woman’s Suffrage movement. It was pretty humbling for me to see what women went through just to get the right to vote and I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t even heard about before. I thought I’d share some of the pictures and the info that was shared. Here’s the museum website if you would be interested in learning more as well.
https://www.sealcoveautomuseum.org/
They had a lot of research and some items from ladies involved in the Suffrage movement and also acknowledged the women left out of the Suffrage movement- namely BIPOC women, who it was thought would anger the men if they were included. Black and Native American women did not get the right to vote until way after white women got the right to vote, for example. Frances Harper was one of the Black Suffrage leaders at the time.
“I do not think the mere extension of the ballot a panacea for all the ills of our national life. What we need to-day is not simply more voters, but better voters.”-Frances Harper
This car was modeled after a boat! It’s made of teakwood and has brass fittings. It was for some fancy executive, but I forget which one at the moment.
This car was driven cross country by two women, Nell Richardson and Alice Burke, to gain support for the Women’s Suffrage Movement. They drove through rain, snow, got stuck in the mud on terrible roads, and a host of other issues. They were mostly met with happiness, but also sometimes gifts, including a cat that they named Saxon, for the car manufacturer. The roads were so bad, in fact, that when they were done with their tour, Alice Burke started campaigning for better roads! Here’s a short article from the National Park Service on the significance of this ride and why the cat was important. https://www.nps.gov/articles/womens-suffrage-and-the-cat.htm
“On the Road, April 9- ‘The very minute we stopped for gasoline, and were forced to give a demonstration of how our little car works. All the men wanted to see inside her, so we waited a while and let them explore to their hearts’ content. If you can’t win a man by oratory, you can by machinery, sometimes.'”- Alice Burke
It was so interesting to read about all this. It also made me extremely grateful for the women who came before me, as well as the strong women in my own family who’ve lived through adversity. I will definitely be doing more research for myself about this and many other things. I hope it inspires you do to do the same!
