Lombard exhibit highlights first woman to vote in Illinois

An 1890s-era ballot box that could have held the first vote cast by a woman in Illinois greets visitors to an exhibit in Lombard, the town where that vote entered the record books on April 6, 1891.

The Lombard Historical Society is playing up the Lilac Village's role in the history of U.S. women's suffrage by displaying an exhibit through August called "Art & Artists of the Suffrage Movement."

The exhibit is open 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays for a suggested donation of $2 a person.

The exhibit builds upon features of the society's permanent display, which pay homage to Lombard resident and attorney Ellen Martin and 14 other women who cast official ballots 29 years before the ability to do so became a women's right nationwide.

The historical society developed the exhibit this year as women's organizations across the country celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1920 and gave women the right to vote. Illinois was among the first states to ratify the amendment.

Permanently displayed artifacts include an early Lombard town charter that allowed "all citizens" to vote - giving Martin and the other women who went to the polls in 1891 the loophole they needed.

Although Lombard leaders altered the town charter after the 1891 election and prevented women from voting again until it was legal nationwide, Martin and her peers made history. Now it's something their successors in town can celebrate, historical society Archivist Jean Crockett and Program Coordinator Colette Freeman say.

As visitors pass from the permanent exhibit inside the Carriage House at the Victorian Cottage Museum, 23 W. Maple St., into the new display, a painting is the first thing they see.

The 1910 artwork, called "With Out Benefit of Attorney" by Frederick de Forrest Schook, shows what it could have looked like when Martin and another woman cast their votes before a judge in a town of less than 1,000 people.

The image sets the tone, Crockett and Freeman say, of an era when "women really didn't have any rights at all."

The majority of the exhibit, however, focuses on pieces by artists who were working during the suffrage movement from the 1850s to 1920 or took an active role in it themselves.

The main artists featured are Christia Reade of Lombard and Clara Barck Welles of Park Ridge. Barck Welles was an activist who helped organize a Chicago contingent to participate in the 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade in New York. Reade was an artist in many mediums creating works as varied as large, stained glass windows and small, book plates used in private libraries.

Exhibit visitors can see the original Lilac Queen crown Reade crafted from melted silver spoons donated by Lombard residents and several pieces of jewelry forged at Kalo Shop, which Barck Welles co-founded and managed during a Chicago Arts and Crafts movement that began after the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Two large posters highlight key historical points in the movement toward women's suffrage and a few "votes for women" signs remind visitors that the fight for suffrage - and the exhibit itself - come with a message, Freeman said.

"Get out and vote," she said.

A few more modern touches highlight how women's participation in society has expanded during the past century. A photo of a diverse group of young women who made up a recent Lilac Court is a favorite of Crockett's.

"This is what some of the women were fighting for - diversity," she said. "Diversity of opinion."