MAC presents lecture on suffrage

MOSES LAKE - This Saturday at noon the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center presents a lecture by Beverly Mayer entitled, "Women's Vote!" It coincides with their "Equal Rights for Washington Women" exhibit currently on display.

Mayer, who has been giving this presentation to small groups for two years, said that she hadn't known how women's right to vote came about. 

"I began to realize it was important to inform other people," she said. "I have found people so receptive and when I give programs they'll say, 'Oh, I didn't know that!'"

Mayer said she tailors her program to each group she visits, so it's always a little different. 

She will introduce a musical element for the first time Saturday, sprinkling tracks from her CD with the music of folk singer Linda Allen, who has written music specifically relating to women's suffrage.

"I haven't tried it before, but her songs just tell the story in really kind of a fun way and I think it will stick with the audience," she said.

Mayer follows the general history of the women's suffrage movement, but emphasizes Washington state's role.

Washington women could vote 10 years before passage of the 19th amendment allowed women to vote nationally.

Historian Shanna Stevenson, author of "Women's Votes, Women's Voices: the story of women's suffrage in Washington" is behind the "Equal Rights for Washington Women" exhibit at the MAC. 

The exhibit is a program of the Washington State Historical Society's Heritage Traveling Exhibit Service and the Washington State History Museum.

The exhibit runs through July 1.

The MAC is located at 228 W. Third Ave. 

For more information call 509-764-3830.