In March 2021, the Kenilworth Historical Society commemorated Women’s History Month with a new exhibition – “100 Years and More of Votes for Women” — at the Oswald J. Nitschke House “living history” museum and cultural arts center. Through enlightening displays of historic photos, posters, artifacts and other materials, the two-room exhibition tells the story of women’s decades-long struggle to achieve suffrage (the right to vote), which culminated with the August 26, 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Special recognition is given throughout the exhibition to women of different ethnicities, cultures and walks of life who, from as early as the 1800s, organized, lectured, petitioned, lobbied, picketed and paraded in support of women’s suffrage and, in a number of cases, went to jail for doing so. Among the many women highlighted are Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Mary Church Terrell, Alice Stokes Paul, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Carrie Chapman Catt.
The exhibition is made possible by a $1,000 grant from the Investors Foundationof Investors Bank. “We are grateful for the foundation’s generous support, which has allowed us to commemorate and promote, with a major exhibition, such a significant historical achievement as the 19th Amendment,” says Shirley Boyden Maxwell, Kenilworth Historical Society. In addition to funding exhibit costs, the grant also is helping the organization pay certain building/operating expenses.
To make the “100 Years and More of Votes for Women” exhibition accessible to the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kenilworth Historical Society is making a videotaped narrated presentation of it available virtually via Facebook and the organization’s website (www.kenilworthhistoricalsociety.org). The virtual presentation of the exhibition is made possible by a 2021 HEART (History, Education, Arts Reaching Thousands) Grant from the Union County Board of County Commissioners.
The Kenilworth Historical Society is an independent, volunteer-based, non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c) (3) organization dedicated to the research, preservation and interpretation of the Oswald J. Nitschke House (c. 1880), local history and culture. As a member of the Investors Bank Care2Share Affinity Program, the Kenilworth Historical Society encourages eight individuals and/or businesses with Investors Bank personal or business checking accounts to enroll in its program, free of charge, so that the organization will be eligible to receive quarterly donations from the bank. Care2Share program information is available on the bank’s website (www.myinvestorsbank.com).
Investors Bank, headquartered in Short Hills, N.J., is a full-service community bank that has been serving customers since 1926. With over $27 billion in assets and a network of more than 150 retail branches, Investors Bank delivers personalized services and products tailored to the needs of its customers. Such services include complete deposit, loan and cash management products for consumers and businesses. Investors Bank created the Investors Foundation in 2005 to support the communities Investors Bank serves. Investors Foundation supports initiatives in the arts, youth development, health and human services, education and affordable housing and works to improve the lives of its neighbors and communities across the bank’s footprint. # # #
Photo Description: A $1,000 grant from the Investors Foundation of Investors Bank helped make possible a newly unveiled “100 Years and More of Votes for Women” exhibition at the Oswald J. Nitschke House museum and cultural arts center. Stephen Bohmert, Vice President and Retail District Manager, Investors Bank/Summit Branch (at left), and Juan Rengifo, Assistant Vice President and Branch Manager, Investors Bank/ Cranford Branch, are shown here at the Nitschke House with Shirley Boyden Maxwell, president of the Kenilworth Historical Society, who received the grant check on behalf of the organization.