Who: Ashley Howell, Tennessee State Museum executive director, and staff of the Museum
What: Unfurling of Commemorative Replica of National Woman’s Party (NWP) 36-Star Flag off Veranda of the Tennessee State Museum. A photo of the original image is available here: https://tnmuseum.org/Stories/posts/36-stars-millions-of-stories.
When: Tuesday, August 18 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: Tennessee State Museum, 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37208; South side of Museum, facing Nashville Farmers’ Market, Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, and the State Capitol
Why: In honor of the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
More: Members of the National Woman’s Party hand-sewed the original gold, white, and purple flag adding a star for each state that ratified the Amendment. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify and members of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association and the National Woman’s Party both worked toward the success of ratification. The final star was sewn on August 18, 1920, when word was received by telegram that Tennessee had ratified the amendment, and soon the flag was unfurled by NWP leader Alice Paul from the balcony of the NWP headquarters in Washington, DC. The Museum’s symbolic unfurling of the replica outside the Museum is open to the public and will also be livestreamed on the Museum’s Facebook channel. The banner will remain hanging through at least August 26, the date the 19th Amendment was officially signed into law. For more about the flag, please visit the Museum’s Stories blog for a post by executive director, Ashley Howell, at TNMuseum.org/Stories.
About Tennessee State Museum
The Tennessee State Museum, on the corner of Rosa L Parks Blvd. and Jefferson Street at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, is home to 13,000 years of Tennessee art and history. Through six permanent exhibitions titled Natural History, First Peoples, Forging a Nation, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Change and Challenge and Tennessee Transforms, the Museum takes visitors on a journey – through artifacts, films, interactive displays, digital events and educational programing – from the state’s geological beginnings to the present day. Additional temporary exhibitions explore significant periods and individuals in history, along with art and cultural movements. For more information on exhibitions, events, and digital programming, please visit tnmuseum.org.