All Citizens - The Lombard Women Who Voted
29 Years Before the 19th Amendment
Virtual Screening on Zoom
“All Citizens” documents a reenactment of the day that Lombard women made history and voted on April 6, 1891. 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…the “polling place” is the Maple Street Chapel and the day was 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.
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.
A Lombard resident and business, Tim Frakes, of Tim Frakes Productions, Inc., produced the documentary and will introduce the film and entertain questions after the screening.
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.
This event is free, but registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
Please register below.
