Centerpiece depicting women who have made a difference through the years.
Jacob Bennett Chapter Members-Left to Right: Lucy Whitmarsh, Edna Puleston, Miriam Olin, Cecilia Bell.The New Mexico Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) recently held an Annual Workshop in Truth or Consequences. The theme for the event was the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of gender. The amendment was adopted on August 18, 1920. Until the 1910s, most states did not give women the right to vote.
The Nineteenth amendment was the culmination of the women's suffrage movement in the United States, which fought at both state and national levels to achieve the right for women to vote. Much of the program at the Annual Workshop depicted the events that lead to the ratification of constitutional amendment. The Nineteenth Amendment was originally introduced in Congress in 1878. Forty one years later, in 1919, Congress submitted it to the states for ratification. It was ratified by three-fourths of the states a year later.
The Silver City DAR, the Jacob Bennett Chapter, was asked to make the centerpieces for the Friday evening dinner. Chapter member, Miriam Olin, developed eight individual very attractive centerpieces that celebrated the achievements of women in not only gaining the right to vote but in other areas as well. The colors of the women’s suffrage movement were white and gold and the colors are represented in the centerpieces. Two leading advocates for the Nineteenth Amendment, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, adopted the sunflower as a symbol of the suffrage cause and the sunflower is included in the centerpiece.
The local chapter of the DAR meets the second Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to Noon at the Silver City Visitor Center located at 201 N. Hudson Street. Visiting members and women interested in joining the organization who have an ancestor who contributed to the efforts of the Revolutionary War are invited to attend the meetings that are held from September through May. For additional information contact Regent, Lucy Whitmarsh, at 575-574-8394 or by email at whitmarshlucy@gmail.com