All Citizens a Documentary…
The Lombard Historical Society (LHS) and Tim Frakes Productions Inc. announces the our new documentary, All Citizens: The Lombard Women who Voted 29 Years Before the 19th Amendment and the Story of Those Who Made it Possible.
Professional actors and volunteers alike donned reproduction nineteenth century clothing to portray Ellen Martin and the Lombard women casting those first ballots for women in a general election.
All Citizens, documents a reenactment of the day that Lombard women made history and voted on April 6, 1891. Ellen Martin, a Chicago Lawyer and Lombard resident, played a pivotal role in starting the women’s suffrage movement in DuPage County. On April 6, 1891, twenty-nine years before the 19th Amendment would be ratified in 1920, Martin led a group of fourteen of the most prominent Lombard women to vote in a town election.
Lombard Town Charter, c, 1869.
Although the town charter had been written to include “all citizens” in 1869, it wasn’t until 1891 that Lombard women felt safe to vote. Several factors were aligned to empower them to make that decision: A woman attorney (Ellen Martin) lived in their midst, a critical mass of well-connected prominent women were willing to incur the wrath of their menfolk, and there was a national upsurge of interest and activism advancing women’s rights.
In addition to Ellen Martin, the other women who voted, as reported in the Apr. 18, 1891 Chicago Tribune, were Miss Margaret Towne, Mrs. N. Cushing, Mrs. S. R. Thurston, Mrs. C. B. Vance, Mrs. H. S. Rand, Mrs. J. H. Patterson, Miss Maria Reade, Mrs. Isaac Claflin, Mrs. Cynthia Williams, Mrs. H. B. Rand, Mrs. W. R. Plum, Mrs. B. R. Reynolds, Mrs. C. L. Towne, and Mrs. H. W. Plum.
Premiere: June 7 at Noon
Join us on June 7, after the screening at Noon, where there will be a Facebook Watch Party with Tim Frakes, of Tim Frakes Productions, Inc. A Lombard resident and business, Frakes produced the documentary and will introduce the film and entertain questions after the screening. Staff from the Lombard Historical Society will also be available for questions regarding All Citizens and Ellen Martin.
Also Watch:
TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/1rw3mWyagog
TO WATCH ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/1150620398620165/
TO WATCH ON TV: Channel 7.2 Live Well Network
TO WATCH IN LOMBARD: Comcast TV-6, AT&T Channel 99
About Tim Frakes Productions
Located in the old Lombard Hotel, above Babcock’s Grove Restaurant, Tim Frakes produces documentary and image video for non-profit, faith-based, broadcast and corporate clients. Tim Frakes also collaborated with the Lombard Historical Society last year on the documentary, Sheldon Peck, An Ordinary Man In Extraordinary Times, about Sheldon Peck, itinerant folk art painter and abolitionist from Lombard.
All Citizens Documentary: $20 Pickup or can be Shipped
