WWI: The Home Front
How Women Helped Win the War
And Won The Vote!!!
Exhibition Closed
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Take a peek at the award winning
exhibition catalog!
QUESTION: What was life like for the residents of Long Island during the World War I era? How were women the critical component, helping to win the vote via the 19th Amendment.
Read the Press Release
This exhibition is dedicated to
The Hagedorn Family
with our grateful thanks for their
ongoing generous support
of our educational programing
In this exhibition we’ll explore our home front, from our entry into the war until the men came home and women were granted the right to vote. A few of the topics we will cover include:
FARMERETTES
A national call rang out for farmerettes to grow the crops when men went to war. Tens of thousands of women responded, many of them college-educated. Our residents and visiting women housed in barracks on Barker’s Point worked the land all over town, including on the Guggenheim estates in Sands Point and on Bourke Cockran’s land in Harbor Acres. Some of them took the local trolley to Mineola to farm. The slogan, “Food Will Win the War,” led to victory gardens, “Meatless Mondays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays,” a LIRR canning train, and pledges by housewives to conserve food.
REGIMENT
The Port Washington Home Guard, comprised of local men, will be shown in our primary source photographs before and during training, at the Main Street School and at their encampment at Locust Grove Pavilion in Manorhaven. Our local men’s preparation for war was so complete that they were made corporals upon entering the service. We’ll take a look at some of our local men who served and the Long Island training camps they all passed through en route to France.
SUFFRAGETTES
While some women worked solely on the war effort, some continued in their cause to achieve women's suffrage. Nearly 2,000 of the National Woman’s Party, “Silent Sentinels,” picketed the White House for 2-1/2 years, with many getting arrested and tortured. Suffragists and their supporters paraded all over, in Washington, D.C., in New York City, and in Port Washington. This culminated in the passage of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing American women the right to vote once ratified in 1920, over100 years ago.
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photo: Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
