Local History: Suffrage on the Seacoast
January 23, 2020
Local History Talk
Suffrage on the Seacoast
Monday February 10 | 7 – 8:30 PM
Portsmouth Public Library
The library’s Local History series features authors and experts on local history topics. The series continues with educator Lauren Gianino, who’ll shine a spotlight on women from Portsmouth and Dover who were key players in the fight for suffrage.
In 2020, the nation will commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote. It was a complex battle waged by both sexes and it took many decades before the fight for women’s suffrage was won.
In her lecture, Lauren Gianino will provide a brief outline of the suffrage movement and beyond from its beginnings in the 1830s to the present day. She will shed light on the opposition movement and the challenges that women’s rights advocates confronted. Gianino will explain how the suffrage movement in New Hampshire arose and what it looked like here in the city, focusing on Seacoast women who fought for suffrage on the local, state, and national levels. The lecture will conclude with a look at the post-ratification period and the fight for equal rights that continues to this day.
Lauren Gianino developed and guides the Portsmouth Women Tour for the Portsmouth Historical Society’s Discover Portsmouth Center. She is a native New Englander who has resided in the Seacoast region since 1982. From her first visit as a child to a historical museum, she was intrigued by the people and events that shaped our nation’s history. As a retired educator, she finds sharing those stories is a natural fit for her “second career.” Gianino leads guided tours at Discover Portsmouth, the Moffatt-Ladd House, and the John Paul Jones House.
