April 14th, 2021

The Castine Historical Society is hosting the first in a series of Zoom talks during the 2021 season on Thursday, April 29 at 4:30 p.m. The speaker will be Anne Gass whose talk, “Voting Down the Rose: Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage,” describes how Maine women fought to gain the right to vote.  The talk will also focus on the role her great-grandmother, Florence Brooks Whitehouse, played in Maine’s suffrage movement. Pre-registration is required for this Zoom event by April 28th. To sign up visit castinehistoricalsociety.org or call the Historical Society at 207-326-4118.

Event speaker Anne GassWhitehouse was a novelist, painter, vocalist, and mother of three sons when she joined the suffrage movement in 1914. Gass will explore Whitehouse’s life up to 1914 and then talk about her role as a leader in giving Maine women and those throughout America the right to vote. Among the stories will be how Whitehouse joined forces with national suffragist leader Alice Paul in a desperate, last-ditch effort to ensure that Congress would ratify the 19th Amendment and give women the right to vote. Gass will accompany her lively talk with historic images.

Anne B. Gass is the author of Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage, published in 2014. The book will be available for sale at Compass Rose Books in Castine.

The Castine Historical Society serves as a window into Castine’s extraordinary past. The Historical Society preserves local history and hosts permanent and temporary exhibitions, lectures, education events, town walking tours, and house and garden tours. Exhibits are located in its Abbott School gallery at 17 School Street, Castine. The Grindle House offices and research library are located at 13 School Street, Castine. Research appointments are limited at this time and should
be made by emailing research@castinehistoricalsociety.org.  The Historical Society exhibits are free and open June 11 – October 11, Friday, Saturday, and Monday from 10 – 4; Sunday from 1-4. Free one-hour walking tours of Castine are offered Friday, Saturday, and Monday at 10:00 and Sunday at 2:00.

For further information about exhibits, events, and the Historical Society visit castinehistoricalsociety.org, call 207-326-4118, or email info@castinehistoricalsociety.org.