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07/15/2016 12:00 AMFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kenneth Florey of Madison, Connecticut recently has created two exhibits, “Women’s Suffrage Memorabilia” and “Two Women Presidential Candidates (Victoria Woodhull and Belva Lockwood)” for the online Google Arts & Culture’s American Democracy Collection. Dr. Florey, Professor Emeritus of English from Southern Connecticut State University, has written two books on suffrage artifacts, Women’s Suffrage Memorabilia: an Illustrated Historical Study and American Women Suffrage Postcards: a Study and Catalog.
The Google Arts & Culture’s American Democracy Collection brings together over 70 exhibits and 2500+ artifacts from 44 institutions dedicated to the preservation of U.S. political history and the practice of American democracy. The exhibition, which began on July 13, is open for all at g.co/AmericanDemocracy and through the Google Arts & Culture mobile app for iOS and Android.
The Collection focuses on such subjects as Abraham Lincoln campaign material, the State of Virginia political items, cause memorabilia, the campaign of 1800, Woodrow Wilson, and more. Featured are presentations on suffrage and women in politics, including Dr. Florey’s two exhibits.”
Google Arts & Culture is a product of the Google Cultural Institute and its partners designed to put the world’s cultural treasures at the fingertips of Internet users and to assist the cultural sector in sharing more of its diverse heritage online. The Google Cultural Institute has partnered with more than 1100 institutions, providing the Arts & Culture platform to over 400 thousand artworks and a total of 5 million photos, videos, manuscripts and other documents of art, culture and history.
Dr. Florey’s two exhibits for the American Democracy Collection include representations of such memorabilia from the Woman Suffrage movement as sashes, china, buttons and badges, postcards, pennants, ballots, sheet music, and photographs. Featured are images of both Belva Lockwood and Victoria Woodhull that have not been published previously in any form.
He has appeared on television discussing memorabilia on the Fox Network show Personal FX and more recently on Jan Doyle’s cable show, Wyse Talk. He has lectured on Suffrage at a number of venues in both America and England, including the annual Ticknor Society meeting at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair, the conference entitled “Suffrage City! Women’s Suffrage and Cultural Representation” at the University of Wolverhampton in England, the International Philatelic Exhibition at the Javits’ Center in New York, the American Political Items Semi-Annual Convention in Harrisburg, the Annual Festival at the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, and the Wichita Postcard Club Fair and Exhibition.
Dr. Florey’s belief is that memorabilia makes a significant statement about the nature of the suffrage movement, providing us a glimpse of period attitudes and arguments for and against women’s rights that are only partially revealed in speeches, tracts, and documents. Particularly insightful are the images of suffragists and the movement that appeared on postcards from the period that extended from 1907-1917.
His collection has served as a research tool for scholars interested in suffrage history and ideology who have focused their studies not only on postcards but also on such diverse materials as cookbooks, sheet music, and buttons and badges. His website at http://womansuffragememorabilia.com/ continues to be a highly used and respected tool for both historians and collectors.