Noting that the 2016 election marked the first time in U.S. history that a woman could vote for a female major-party nominee for president, Jennifer Mercurio of Garrison decided to celebrate the suffrage movement that led in 1920 to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that allowed women to cast ballots. Emphasizing it was not a rally for Hillary Clinton but a nonpartisan gathering, she shared an invitation online for women to meet at St. Mary’s Church in Cold Spring on Election Day dressed in white, the official color of the suffrage movement.
More than 70 women showed up. Caroline Kaye, who took this photograph, said “the energy and joy on St. Mary’s Lawn was palpable and incredibly inspiring.” A number of the women joined others from the community, including older students from the Manitou School, at Cold Spring Cemetery to visit the grave of Ida Timme, a prominent local suffragette.
