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Claiming the World As Victorian women began looking towards the larger world, they also demanded to be recognized in the arts and sciences.  Traveling in the 1900s was a man’s pursuit and women were not admitted to the professional and academic organizations that funded travel expeditions.  London’s prestigious Royal Geographical Society stated, “The professional female…

“A lady explorer?  A traveler in skirts? The notion’s just a trifle too seraphic: Let them stay and mind the babies Or hem our ragged shirts; But they mustn’t, can’t and shan’t be geographic.” Letter to the Royal Geographic Society, June 1893 Who was the Intrepid Woman Traveler? By the 19th century, a new…

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.- The 19th Amendment The passage of the 19th amendment in 1920 was a seminal moment for women’s rights and voting rights in the United States. When combined…

When Historic Denver, Inc. bought the Molly Brown House in 1970, it had been emptied of Brown-owned objects and was being used as a boarding house. With restoration efforts and donations from descendants, Margaret’s renters, donors and others who had bought the objects in the house, museum curators have been able to verify and replace…

Like any progressive reform movement, the women’s suffrage movement was met with opposition from both men and women who believed that it would destroy the traditional order of the family. While many people, both men and women, were avid supporters of the movement to give women the vote, there was a very large movement against…

In Margaret Brown’s era, “Pink tea politics” suggested a frivolous engagement with political change, particularly among women of the upper classes of society. Progressive-era gatherings known as ‘pink teas’  were a socially acceptable way for women to organize and strategize in the pursuit of women’s rights, particularly the right to vote without the oversight or…

Sunday, July 26, 2020 marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark civil rights law prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities “in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.”[1] The ADA added to previous disability…

“Servants of Mrs. Brown Poisoned”, reads a headline on page one of the May 7, 1904 edition of the Denver Times. “Five of the servants seriously ill from eating contaminated food but the family escaped any issues,” it continues. Sam Gleason, stable boy, Mary O’Fallon, cook, Annie Schleining, second girl, Sadie Johnson second girl, and…

Early Aerial of Denver, courtesy of Denver Public Library “A people’s memory is called history; and as a man without a memory, so a people without a history cannot grow wiser, better”. – Isaac Leib Peretz (Polish Author & Playwright) What exactly is historic preservation?  In these polarizing times, the term has almost taken on…

Throughout its existence, the Brown’s home, which has come to be known as the House of Lions, has had many different lives. After Margaret Brown died in 1932, the house and everything in it was sold in an estate sale. The house became apartments and, later, a boarding house. By 1952, it was under the…