2023 Annual Report

Building a Future Where Maryland’s Unforgettable Women Make History

We built this future during 2023 when we:
Spotlighted Maryland’s women of accomplishment with in-person and virtual programs
  • Maryland Suffragists on the National Votes for Women Trail (January)
  • Author Talk by Ida Jones, PhD: Victorine Adams: The Power of the Ballot (January) 
  • DEI and You (February)
  • Fannie Lou Hamer: A Life (September) 
  • Kalin’s Chronicles: Musings of CNN’s First Black Travel Reporter (September)
  • Tea with Suffragists (Women’s Equality Day observance, August) 

MWHC partnered with several library systems for: How to be a Citizen Researcher (Garrett and Allegany, April); Memories of the Woman’s Industrial Exchange (March); and Fascinating Women Buried in Baltimore’s Cemeteries (Enoch Pratt Library, March).

Explored and documented the rich history of the Woman’s Industrial Exchange
With support of a Baltimore National Heritage Area grant, MWHC continues to conduct oral history interviews with former Woman’s Industrial Exchange (WIE) customers, volunteers, and employees. We are also organizing and saving records, correspondence, and items left over from the days that WIE operated as a crafts consignment shop and popular lunch restaurant. To mentor future women historians, the project leader recruited student interns from the Elizabeth Morrissy Honors Program at Notre Dame of Maryland University who served as researchers and presenters.

Supported existing and emerging Maryland women artists
Now in its third year, MWHC continued our women’s artist series with rotating exhibits placed in our street-facing window on Baltimore’s Charles Street. Pedestrians and motorists see displays by a diverse group of artists that feature sculpture, acrylics, oils, fiber, photos, and more. Each exhibition opens with an artist reception that is free and open to all.
Shared our expertise on women's history with community organizations
Organizations and museums on a state and national level reach out to MWHC board members and volunteers due to our wide range of women’s history knowledge.

  • In the past year MWHC has collaborated with The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, The Fire Museum of Maryland, Doors Open Baltimore, Free Fall Baltimore, Allegheny County Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland Humanities, Harford County Historical Society/Discovery Center at Water’s Edge, Maryland Public Television, and Notre Dame of Maryland University.  
  • MWHC works with the Maryland Commission on Women in the annual Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame nomination and induction ceremony.
  • MWHC donated our Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame display to Notre Dame of Maryland University, where it is now displayed in the newly renovated Knott Science Center. The Maryland Commission on Women, with support from the MWHC, inducts new members to the Hall of Fame annually. NDUM President Dr. Marylou Yam welcomed the MWHC and the Maryland Commission to a dedication ceremony in November.    
  • MWHC board members, volunteers, and friends planned and facilitated Women of Achievement, a six-session Renaissance Institute at Notre Dame of Maryland University course. 
  • MWHC Board Secretary Dr. Amy Rosenkrans was invited by the City of Frederick, Maryland and the Frederick Women’s Civics Club to share her extensive knowledge about the women who fought for suffrage in the area. The event took place during Women’s History Month in March. 
  • Executive Director Diana M. Bailey represented MWHC at the Appalachian Festival at Frostburg State University, where she sat on a panel entitled Experiencing the Feminine in Appalachia: Women, Gender and Place.
  • Executive Director Diana Bailey represents MWHC in strategic meetings that explore the future of the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo, Maryland. 
  • Maryland Public Television invited MWHC representatives to contribute expertise in discussion panels that followed programming about Harriet Tubman (Visions of Freedom) and Frederick Douglass (Becoming Frederick Douglass). 
  • MWHC collaborates with Maryland Humanities on Maryland History Day and funds the Women’s History Award.  This year’s winners were Allison Sweeney and Daniela Martinez of Poolesville High School, with their topic The Evolution of Media in The Riot Grrrl Movement.
Completed our extensive research and biography collection of Maryland’s suffragists
MWHC celebrated once-forgotten history when we unveiled a historical marker at our event venue at 333 N. Charles Street in honor of Edith Houghton Hooker. Just steps away at 15 E. Pleasant Street (site of the current Verizon Building), Mrs. Hooker established the Just Government League, a statewide suffragist organization of the early 1900s. Recent research shined a light on Hooker’s influential and overlooked work as she traveled statewide fighting for women’s voting rights.  This was the last of ten markers placed throughout Maryland in the last two years, supported by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation that honored Maryland suffragists, many previously unknown until our research. We placed our collection of 100+ short biographies of Maryland’s suffragists, collected since 2020, on our website https://mdwomensheritagecenter.org/suffrage-bios-directory/. To honor this two-year project, Baltimore Heritage presented the MWHC with its annual Preservation Award for promoting the history of the women’s suffrage movement in Baltimore.
Planned for a sustainable future
  • To ensure the MWHC continues to serve as Maryland’s women’s history experts well into the future, MWHC partnered with the Community Foundation of Howard County to establish the MWHC Legacy Fund. Consider a donation to help us sustain a future for women’s history in Maryland. 
  • MWHC applied for and received funding from Baltimore Heritage Area ($500 mini-grant) and Maryland Humanities ($10,000 operations grant.)

 

Click on the gallery below to enlarge photos and read captions. 

Message from Johns Hopkins, Executive Director, Baltimore Heritage

“Baltimore Heritage honored the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center with a 2023 Preservation Award for its dedicated work to celebrate the heroes of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. They coordinated the installation and dedication of historic markers that honored women like Augusta Chissell and Margaret Hawkins in the Marble Hill neighborhood. They also recently installed a historic marker at its headquarters, the former Woman’s Industrial Exchange. The Maryland Women’s Heritage Center’s continued effort to uncover, preserve, and celebrate the memory of Maryland’s women shows that the center is an invaluable asset to our community.”