Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! We’re so busy right now trying to get one particular woman enshrined in Statuary Hall that I didn’t have time to write a post. Instead I pulled together some links and videos to share.

IWD.com has an excellent timeline of the history of Women’s Day. The page also includes a video from Russia which highlights how the observance there has morphed into a kind of cross between Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

In other countries, though, Women’s Day still carries political significance:

The National Women’s History Museum offers a more in-depth look at the evolution of the March 8 observance:

EVE on KSDK in St. Louis

Visitors to our website the past few days have seen the wonderful new video about us right on the front page. If you haven’t watched it yet, check it out.

The video came as a total surprise to us: we had no idea Judge Susan Block (she’s retired from the Circuit Court) was recording this commentary for KSDK in St. Louis. She’s a regular commentator for the station, and was turned on to EVE by the fabulous feminist playwright Joan Lipkin, also in St. Louis.

Huge thanks to both Susan and Joan for this labor of love. And hello, St. Louis!

Senator Teresa Fedor casts vote for Ohio statue

Senator Teresa Fedor explains why she cast her vote for Harriet Beecher Stowe to represent Ohio in National Statuary Hall:

…continue reading

Voters select famous Ohioan for Statuary Hall

Coverage of the 10 Ohio finalists from WKYC in Cleveland. At about 1:18, Kim Schuette of the Ohio Historical Society points out that there are only 9 women in Statuary Hall.

Video: Amelia Earhart discusses her career in aviation

Video: Amelia Earhart describes her solo flight across the Atlantic

I never realized the Treasury Department had theme music

I’m sure Dr. Long will have more to say on the new $100 bill shortly, but in the meantime I wanted to share this delightful video from the Treasury Department:

It’s wonderful, isn’t it? The music is so stirring, and it’s fun to watch the bill spin and swoop all over the place (though it did put me in mind of those warnings not to fold, spindle, or mutilate).

The list of features included in the new bill is impressive:

• Blue 3-D Security Ribbon
• The Bell in the Inkwell
• Portrait Watermark
• Security Thread
• Color-shifting 100
• Quill Pen (not sure that’s a security feature, but it’s pretty)

It seems the only thing the Treasury Department can’t put on the currency is a woman.

“God wrote it”: what a book can do

A 14-year-old student created this video about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin for history class. It’s well-done and very moving:

From the final frame:

[T]he importance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for the fight against slavery and racial prejudice is undeniable, and some say that it helped to shape American history more than any other document. Stowe, when writing about her book in later years, said that “God wrote it,” referring to its great meaning to society.

That’s exactly why she should be in Statuary Hall.

Video: Ohio — Put a Woman in Statuary Hall!

Produced by an EVE volunteer:

Video: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin

From YouTube user sas18401, a video about how Harriet Beecher Stowe was inspired to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the impact of the book on slavery: