The year 2020 was the 100th anniversary of a woman’s universal right to vote in the US. In recognition of that landmark anniversary, the Canton Historical Society is hosting a talk on the suffrage movement that proceeded that change. It will be on Wednesday, October 25, at 6:30 p.m., in its building at 25 Turner Street. The speaker will be Anne Gass.

Anne Gass’s great-grandmother, Florence Brooks Whitehouse, was a novelist, painter, vocalist, and mother of three sons. In 1914, she joined the movement that helped move suffrage forward in Maine. Ms. Gass will talk about Florence’s leadership in that movement that resulted in the Maine legislature ratifying the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Slides of historic photos will accompany this lively talk.

Anne B. Gass helped advise the Maine State Museum on developing an exhibit in honor of the 100-year anniversary of Maine’s ratification of the 19th Amendment. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative, as the Maine Coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail, and is an appointee to Maine’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. Ms. Gass has authored a book about her grandmother entitled Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage (2014). She has also written We Demand: The Suffrage Road Trip, a historical fiction novel based on the true story of a 1915 road trip for the suffrage cause. (2021). Learn more about Ms. Gass at www.mainesuffragecentennial.org/anne-b-gass.

This talk is free of admission and open to the public. The venue is handicap accessible. Refreshments will be served. Doors open at 6 p.m.

The Canton Historical Society is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization devoted to the preservation and celebration of Canton’s heritage and history.

If you would like more information about this event, please email cantonmehistorical@gmail.com, or go to www.cantonmehistory.org