STOCKTON — The Stockton Heritage Museum will host “Casting a Historic Vote: Suffrage for Women in Illinois” presented by Jeanne Schultz Angel. The presentation will take place beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 10 at the Stockton Heritage Museum, 107 West Front Street, Stockton, Ill. This event is free and open to the public, though donations will be accepted at the door.
Prior to 1920, women were denied the vote in the majority of elections in the United States. The struggle for enfranchisement began with the birth of our nation and was strategized differently in our local, state, and federal elections.
Despite what people today believe to be a straightforward goal, the path to women’s suffrage was infused with sexism and racism and triggered a fear of feminism whose roots are still seen today.
While wealthy women advocates played a vital role in the suffrage movement, they were not the only ones seeking enfranchisement. From attorney Ellen Martin, the first woman to vote in Illinois, to Ida B. Wells, a woman who did not let racism stop her voice, women’s suffrage has been a battle hard fought by a diverse group of activists in Illinois.
Jeanne Schultz Angel received a Bachelors degree in Anthropology and Masters degree in History at Illinois State University. She worked as the curator and then director for the St. Charles Heritage Center in St. Charles, IL from 1996-2000. In late 2006, she returned to the museum world as Executive Director of the Lombard Historical Society, where she managed two historic house museums in Lombard, Ill., including the Sheldon Peck Homestead; listed on the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
She was accepted to the Illinois Humanities Council “Road Scholar Speaker Bureau” in 2013 to speak about the anti-slavery movement and suffrage in Illinois. In November of 2013 she became the Executive Director of the Illinois Association of Museums with offices in Springfield and Chicago.
From 2015-19 she was the Executive Director of the Nineteenth Century Club and Charitable Association, a historic cultural building in downtown Oak Park. In September 2019, Angel joined the staff at Naper Settlement as the Director of Learning Experiences & Historic Resources. Established in 1969, Naper Settlement is a 13-acre outdoor history museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums that consists of a collection of thirty historical buildings and structures from the Naperville, Ill. area.
Angel resides in Chicago with her husband and three children.
For the safety of all, we are requiring all attendees to wear a mask while in the museum.
