Did you know that in 1854, Seattle pioneer Arthur Denny introduced the first women’s suffrage bill to the Territorial Legislature?

That from 1883 to 1888 women in the Washington Territory could vote?

Did you know that women in Washington State won the right to vote on November 8, 1910, a decade before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified?

Or that in 1926, Seattle became the first major city to have a female mayor, Bertha Knight Landes?

That in 1970, Washington State became the first state in which voters legalized abortion?

Or in 2005, Washington became the only state to elect two female senators, and a female governor?

March is “National Women’s History Month.” In celebration, Seattle’s Klondike Gold Rush Museum is hosting an exhibit about Catherine Paine Blaine, a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments at the First Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, and Seattle’s first school teacher.

Catherine Blaine came to Seattle with her husband, Rev. David Blaine, as a Methodist missionary, but she didn’t limit herself to the church or schoolroom. The Blaines only lived in Seattle for a few years, 1854-57, before moving on to do missionary work elsewhere, but they returned in 1882, to stay. Catherine’s belief in women’s suffrage and equality has had a lasting impact on our state. Catherine Blaine didn’t survive to see the 19th Amendment ratified, but her legacy, and that of women like her, lives on each time we vote.

The exhibit runs through May 30th.

In addition to the Catherine Blaine exhibit, the Museum has coordinated a number of other entertaining, edifying, and educational events [LINK]:

March 14th – 2:00 PM
Seattle Women in the Women’s Suffrage Victory of 1910 in Washington State
Shana Stevenson discusses the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Seattle. This presentation will have special emphasis on the role of Seattle and King County women in the campaign of 1909-1910, which resulted in Washington women permanently winning the vote in November, 1910.

March 28th – 2:30 PM
Vivien Rose, chief of cultural resources at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, N.Y. will address the women’s rights movement from a national perspective.

April 4th – 2:00 PM
Barbara Callander and Toni Douglass will stage “May’s Vote,” the story of two activists, Emma Smith DeVoe and May Arkwright Hutton, who worked side-by-side to help win the vote for women in Washington State. Afterwards, Barbara and Toni will conduct a voting workshop for children.

April 5th – 2:00 PM
Goodwill Industries and Klondike living history volunteers model women’s fashions from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, illustrating how the fight for women’s access to the voting booth was echoed in their closets.

May 9th – 2:00 PM
Heidi Walker, local photographer and mountaineer, offers a presentation on three women who dared the mountains while others dared the Capitol. Learn about the adventures of Minnie Peterson, mountain guide, Helen Thayer, adventurer and explorer, and Fay Fuller, the first woman to conquer Mt. Rainier.

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The Seattle Fire Department and the Seattle Municipal Archives also have a special online exhibit, Strength and Stamina: Women in the Seattle Fire Department. In conjunction with the exhibit is a presentation by retired Battalion Chief Bonnie Beers, the first woman firefighter in the Seattle Fire Department. She will speak about her experiences on March 24, 2009, at 2 p.m. in the Bertha Knight Landes room at City Hall. [LINK]