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Taking the Kids: Celebrating women's accomplishments on your next trip

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago. Hull-House became a world-famous settlement house that provided much-needed services to immigrants, kindergarten and day care for working moms. It also acted as an employment bureau, offering English classes and more.

The Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia famously tells the story of the woman who made the nation's first flag, but is also the only historic site in Philadelphia dedicated solely to telling the stories of Colonial women and their contributions through the House's Women At Work in Revolutionary America exhibit, which interactively illustrates the jobs women performed in and out of the home in the 18th century. Meet Phillis, the laundress, who was born a slave, but was educated and ultimately freed, becoming a member of Colonial Philadelphia's vibrant Free Black community.

The Molly Brown House Museum in Denver. Molly Brown earned the moniker "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," thanks to her efforts to rescue survivors after the sinking of the Titanic. She was also an outspoken advocate for miners' rights and the minimum age. "The Molly Brown House allows you to relive one young girl's story," 12-year-old Delaney told me, as I was working on my book "Kid's Guide to Denver."

In San Diego, there is the Women’s Museum of California with its March to Empowerment exhibit on the women's suffrage movement and the Trailblazers of California, which showcase the women who helped build California including Clara Shortridge Foltz, the first female lawyer on the West Coast, who pioneered the idea of the public defender and Margaret Chung, one of the first Chinese-American female physicians, who helped establish the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service unit (WAVES), a women's branch of the U.S. Navy that served during World War II. (Check out Visit San Diego's Hear us roar, shout-out to the city's female culinary stars.)

Let's not forget all of the National Park Service historic sites that celebrate women whose names we don' readily recognize, including:

The Rosie the Riveter-WWII Home front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, details the contributions women made during World War II on the home front, particularly excelling in traditional male jobs in shipyards and factories.

 

The Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., celebrates the fight waged by American women to secure the vote. Seneca Falls is also where the first Women's Convention on women's suffrage was held in July1848. In addition to rallying for the vote (which didn't come nationally until 1920), women also fought for the right to equal educational opportunities and the right to property and earnings.

The Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., showcases not only one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, but also offers insight into the way she used the world around her to inspire her work.

"I want all the girls watching here, now," Winfrey said in her speech, "to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women ... and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, 'Me, too' again.

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and check out Eileen's kids' guides to major American cities. You may also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)


(c) 2018 DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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