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Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home and Museum has been
chosen to be featured on the NCWHS site.
Read below to learn about this great women's history site.
Carrie Chapman Catt |
Key coordinator of the woman suffrage movement and skillful political
strategist, Carrie (Lane) Chapman Catt revitalized the National American Woman
Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and played a leading role in its successful
campaign to win voting rights for women. In 1920 she founded the League of
Women Voters upon ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
Today, her rural Iowa girlhood home has been restored and is open to the
public. It is a classic example of Victorian-era architecture and utilitarian
design, located about three miles southeast of Charles City, a farming and
manufacturing community of 8,000 midway between Minneapolis and Des Moines.
The home is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is managed
by the National 19th Amendment Society, a volunteer, non-profit organization
based in Charles City. It is a partner in the Silos and Smokestacks National
Heritage Area, administered by the National Park Service.
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In 1865 and 1866, Lucius Lane - Carrie’s father - constructed the first
section of the home prior to his family’s arrival from Ripon, Wisconsin.
Seven-year-old Carrie, her nine-year-old brother Charles, and their mother
Maria Clinton Lane lived in another house in town during construction, and
moved into the modest but handsome home in 1866. Later additions, completed by
about 1875, give the home its appearance today. Lucius Lane, seeking to
accommodate his family on the rugged prairie frontier, built the brick
structure with enclosed, hollow exterior walls to provide efficient insulation
for heating and cooling during each of Iowa’s four robust seasons.
The exterior of the home.
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Carrie lived with her family at the farm from 1866 to 1877, when she graduated
from Charles City High School and enrolled at the state’s agricultural and
science college in Ames. Carrie’s ties to the home remained strong, however,
as she continued to visit her family. In 1885, at age 26, Carrie married Leo
Chapman in a wedding ceremony in the Lane home's living room (the east
addition). Six years later, in 1891, the Lane family sold the property and
moved into a house on Ferguson Street in Charles City. That house also remains
at its original location today.
As an adult, Carrie fondly recalled her childhood and young adult years at
what was known as Spring Brook Farm. She often spent afternoons on the bough
of a large oak tree nearby, reading books. Horseback riding gave the
independent girl a new measure of freedom. The farm was also the setting for
an early lesson in American civics when, at age 13, she openly questioned why
her mother was not voting in the 1872 presidential election, like her father
and his hired man. Her sincere question was greeted with laughter. Voting,
she was told, was too important a civic duty to leave to women. As an adult, Mrs.
Catt recalled that day as a turning point in her life.
The home today tells the stories of Carrie’s childhood, life on the prairie
frontier, and of the fight for equal suffrage, featuring over 75 display
panels in a permanent exhibit designed in 2005 by University of Northern Iowa
students in graphic art design. About two acres of restored prairie are
nearby. Plans are underway to construct a visitor center near the home,
designed to resemble an 1870s-era barn. |
