thank you so much for your time. [applause] >> american history tv is on social media. follow us at c-span history. c-span cities tour is exploring the american story. join us the first and third weekends of each month as we take book tv and american history tv on the road and to watch videos from all of the cities we have visited, go to c-span.org/citiestour and follow c-span cities. we now continue our tour of .aramie >> we are in the women's hallway of the laramie plains museum. in this hallway, we begin to

tell you the story of why wyoming was so unique, granting women this right to vote, hold property, and allow selected office. december 10, 18 69, our wyoming territorial legislature dictated this, and it was signed by governor campbell, granting women this act. really so remarkable we have a copy of this. is soe this copy that extraordinary. you see that sensible writing that said what was happening? because of this act, december 10, 1869, giving women full rights alongside men, we had the first woman voter in the world, , theirst woman bailiff first women on a jury. we had all of wyoming's women able to be in the legislature.

we had the first woman justice of the peace. we had nelly taylor ross. all of these were the cavalcade fallout from the beautiful suffrage act of december 10 1869. here, we just have a few more mentions of our women who were important. a great thing for one woman whose friends were so worried -- she is out in the west caught in the suffrage act idiocy, and she writes about it. she says "some of my friends are eastern girls who judge women's suffrage by the english suffragettes report and think any woman who votes must be .readful i told them about a friend of mine who had recently been elected to county office and assured them she was as nice and

modest and womanly as any of them and probably was shyer. i had to take my word for it but assured me you could not possibly stay so. you would undoubtedly become bold and mannish in a very short time." hallway, wee this go out into the foyer and into .he salon come with me. we are going to go into the where they withdrew for special events. we are here showcasing a defense of the suffrage act. .e have the exhibit set up jane and edward ivins and and their adopted daughter maggie. this home is the largest artifact we have and their place of residence after 24 years when they first came to laramie. they arrived on that first train when there was nothing here, made their fortunes and built this house 24 years later.

we have salvaged his house, and in here, we tell laramie's history like this suffrage act. we have to simmer 10, 18 and 69. the wyoming territorial legislature passing this law that disgruntled a lot of people. why is that happening in the west? why is it happening in wyoming territory? at the time, we had just become wyoming territory from dakota territory. we were here, and the legislature, one of the reasons they did it, we believe, is they needed to attract women into the west. this was a place of adventurers and cowboys and railroad workers hammering out a railroad. we have the central pacific coming in from california, the union pacific, and we had crazy living conditions out here, and the legislature wanted to partct those women to be of this adventure, so they gave

them full rights. i'm telling you, it was full voting rights, holding property rights, political office rights. there's no other state that can claim that, no other territory that can claim that. north dakota and utah like to believe they have the first woman voter and they may have, but they voted in restricted elections. wyoming women never had to do that. they were on the same terms with men, which is quite extraordinary. in here, we have maybe elizabeth cady stanton coming to the salon to listen about the defense of suffrage because what happened -- it was passed in 1869. in 1870 one, wyoming was getting so much grief that the legislature was saying maybe we should resend this act -- in 1871. this is an exhibit of stephen

downey speaking about this possibly in this salon, speaking about the defense of the act because in 1871, people were giving wyoming territory such grief about having an act where women had the same rights as men, and downey stood there, wrote a very remarkable speech and spoke to the wyoming public about how important this was that we keep this, that we retain this, and it was retained in 1871 by one vote in the legislature. forward 17fast years. wyoming territory is wanting to become a state. , says no one.c. else in the world or anywhere else in the united states is giving women these kind of rights. you need to resend that act and then we will let you become a state. wyoming said "don't care, then we will remain a territory. we will not become a territory

unless we can withhold all these rights our women have had." when you talk about the fact that you have the first women on a jury in 1870, first woman justice ofrst women the peace -- all of this could happen because wyoming had given women that right. it is a a remarkable -- fact that nobody ever knows about. and how great is it that we can tell this story? this is our 150th anniversary of that gift to women and men by the men of wyoming territory. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to laramie, wyoming, to learn about its rich history. to watch more video from you're watching american history

tv every weekend, all we can. next, jane ellen smith teaches us about george washington's character. washington how interacted with his contemporaries, how he viewed himself and how we remember today. today, what we are planning to do is spend a little time talking about george washington and the character he developed over a lifetime. if you think about what we have done for the duration of this course, we called him into the story intermittently. how he organized or recruited men to get them to maintain or stay in the service and one of the things i tried to get across whenever i'm talking about