The Camden Public Library welcomes author and activist Anne B. Gass for an online presentation based on her book, Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage, published in 2014. This talk is part of a series the Library is hosting this year to commemorate the Suffrage Centennial.
Florence Brooks Whitehouse was a novelist, painter, vocalist, and mother of three sons when she first joined the suffrage movement in 1914. This talk explores Whitehouse’s life up to 1914 and her leadership in moving suffrage forward in Maine, joining forces with national leader Alice Paul in a desperate, last-ditch effort to ensure that the Maine legislature ratified the 19th Amendment that would recognize women’s voting rights. The 19th Amendment was adopted on August 26, 1920. Slides of historic photos accompany this lively talk. The speaker, Anne B. Gass, is Whitehouse’s great-granddaughter.
Gass speaks regularly on Florence Brooks Whitehouse and women’s rights. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative and as the Maine Coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail, a project of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites. She also serves on Maine’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.
