Ruth Tenzer Feldman's Blog, page 19
October 25, 2012
Women Say “Vote NO for Suffrage”
Let’s be fair. Men weren’t the only people who voted against suffrage for women–in Oregon and elsewhere. A hundred years ago this week, officers of theOregon State Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women sent a letter to the editor of the Oregonian. The head of the association was Eva Bailey (Mrs. F. J. Bailey).
According to the 1912 Oregon Voter’s Pamphlet, Bailey and her group thought that a woman, “has done her part in the home and not on the hustings, and her power for go...
October 22, 2012
Happy Birthday, Abigail
Abigail Scott Duniway, Oregon’s ardent–and long suffering–advocate for woman suffrage, would have been been 178 years old today. Back in 1912, Oregon’s leading suffragists gave Abigail a huge party. Abigail was ailing by then, and Dr. Viola Coe took over much of the suffrage work.
Here’s what The Oregonian had to say about it:
A most unique party was given by Dr. Coe, October 22nd, shortly before election, in the great Gipsy Smith Auditorium, the occasion being Mrs. Duniway’s 78th birthday. The...
October 19, 2012
OHS + OPB = I Wish I Were There
As luck would have it, on Thursday, October 25th at 7 pm I will be speaking at the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Philadelphia, PA. I’m delighted to be a guest at Big Blue Marble along with three other authors of young adult books: E. C. Meyers, Elisa Ludwig, and K. M. Walton. If you are in the Philadelphia area, come on by.
If I weren’t in Philadelphia, I’d be at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. And here’s why—straight from OHS:
Oregon Experience Screening: “The Suffragists”
Thursday, O...
October 16, 2012
Suffrage Songs of the UK and USA
Today let’s take a look at someone else’s blog. Here’s the link to “The Phonograph” in the United Kingdom. The bloggers use the term “suffragette,” rather than the more neutral term “suffragist,” but I think “suffragette might have been more widely accepted in the UK. What struck me was the picture they used in this blog post. Look familiar? It’s the gathering of suffragists in Portland, with Abigail Scott Duniway front row center in the black dress.
Enjoy the songs. And send me your own suffr...
October 10, 2012
Cushman and Noe at Wordstock 2012
This is the big week for Wordstock, and Blue Thread and I will be there. I will be moderating a panel discussion with Karen Cushman and Katherine Schlick Noe at 5:00 pm on Saturday. The topic: writing history or historical fiction for middle grade readers. Right before that (at 4) Karen and Katherine will be reading from their books. Come on over!
October 5, 2012
Sisters, Not the Suffragists, in 1912
Mention “sisters” in Oregon, and you could be referring to three volcanic mountains or a town near Bend. At the time of that famous suffrage vote a hundred years ago, Sisters the town was well established. That’s what I found out last week when I stopped there after Blue Thread and I finished another leg of the Crazy Eights Author Tour. You couldn’t miss 
this sign.
It turns out that the building (now a restaurant and bar) was once Hotel Sisters. John Dennis (a veteran of the Spanish American W...
October 2, 2012
10-4: Crazy Eights at Broadway Books!
Attention, attention! Blue Thread and I have been zipping through Oregon the past three weeks. This Thursday at 7 p.m., we could be resting, but I don’t want to miss another round of the Crazy Eights Author Tour. This time I will be in the audience at Broadway Books in Portland. I hope you are, too.
Here is a reposting of what the owners of Broadway Books have to say about Thursday’s event:
Usually when we host a reading at Broadway Books, we feature one terrific author. Sometimes — such as in...
September 28, 2012
Press Coverage: September 29, 1912
One of the gems on the Century of Action website is the collection of newspaper articles about the campaign to give Oregon women the right to vote. I used some information from those articles in Blue Thread, but there is a lot more I didn’t put in the book. See for yourself. Go back a hundred years and peek at a world you’ve never known.
Case in point: “From Pulpit, Platform, and Dinner Table Votes for Women Advocated,” by C.H. Clements. It’s an article that The Oregonian published in its Sund...
September 25, 2012
Stop Three: Redmond, Then and Now
If this is week three of the Crazy 8s Author Tour, then the next stop for Blue Thread must be Redmond, Oregon. That’s the Redmond that was first settled by homesteaders Frank and Josephine Redmond, as opposed to Redmond, Washington, which got its name from homesteader Luke McRedmond.
Back in the Blue Thread era (the Portland 1912 part), Redmond was just getting started. A private irrigation company had platted the town (with plots of land and a canal system) in 1906 or so, and electrification...
September 21, 2012
C8Tour: Governor Roberts
I wish all the suffrage characters in Blue Thread were around to meet Barbara Roberts tomorrow at Cannon Beach. There will be eight of us authors speaking at the library there, but in my book Gov. Roberts is the main attraction.
Here’s the official blurb from the Crazy 8s page:
“Elected Governor of Oregon in 1990, Barbara Roberts became the state’s first woman governor and one of the first 10 female governors in the nation. Governor Roberts was a strong advocate for environmental management, hu...
