NEH Landmarks in American History: Women's Suffrage on the Western Frontier

One-Week Summer Program for Public School Teachers, 2006

After reading numerous articles about the origins of women's suffrage, the participants visited South Pass City, the home of William Bright,

member of Wyoming's first territorial legislature who introduced the women's suffrage act. It passed the legislature and when it was signed

by Gov. John A. Campbell on Dec. 10, 1869, Wyoming Territory became the first government to give women equal political rights.

Participants considered the question of why women's suffrage began in Wyoming Territory and in the West in the 19th century.

(Left): Jon Lane, assistant superintendent of South Pass City State Historic Site, describes to participants of the NEH

Landmarks of American History seminar how miners worked Wolverine Mine. The mine is on the grounds of South Pass City

State Historic Site. Later, the participants returned to Laramie where they heard archivists describe various collections both

in the American Heritage Center and the Wyoming State Archives. They broke into smaller groups to assess primary documents

as one part of the workshop project (above right).

Participants heard presentations from historians Dr. David Wrobel, UNLV Department of History

(pictured, left); Dr. Paula Petrik, George Mason University (pictured, right); Craig Bromley,

BLM Lander office; and others during the one-week workshop on women's suffrage.

(Left): Participants were shown the process of panning for gold and, later, some tried a hand at it. Marcia Britton and Dr. Carol Bryant (right) were two of the three project directors. Mark Greene was the third project director. They are pictured here in the parking lot at Split Rock along the Oregon Trail.

Return To Phil's Wyoming Homepage