Editor's note: Zimmerman library is currently set to remain open during the break unless further updates prohibit.
As pieces of the University shut down, the Women’s History Month exhibit will remain open.
The University of New Mexico’s Zimmerman Library has been displaying an art exhibit “We Knew Exactly What You Wanted and WE. GOT. IT.” since March 2 and will continue through April 6 during regular business hours.
On March 13, UNM President Garnett Stokes announced the University of New Mexico will be on an extended spring break until April 5 with limited University operations. Essentials such as Student Health and Counseling (SHAC), student housing and Zimmerman Library are expected to remain open.
This art exhibit is an educational timeline highlighting important women and movements in the women’s suffrage movement, in honor of Women’s History Month in March.
“Suffrage is really important to understand and it’s actually not studied as in-depth as it should be,” librarian Marcy Botwick said, one of the organizers of the project.
A majority of the items in this display were taken from the library collection and the Center for Southwest Research (CSWR).
This display emphasizes the four main aspects of suffrage: social progress, political progress, protest and lack of equality.
“Women’s organizations became really critical in fighting for suffrage,” Botwick said. “The clubs were actually social change outlets… They really saw this as their way to power.”
Information on important names in this rights movement, such as Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, are available at the exhibit.
Botwick emphasized how important it is for students to know history, especially local history. Because of this, local New Mexican women with strong influences in the movement can be traced all the way from the political activity to their careers in New Mexico, from directors to superintendents, in these exhibits.
“This was an international movement,” Botwick said. “These women saw themselves as a part of something much larger.”
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A big part of this movement was the west beginning to enfranchise women state by state.
“There was a lot of debate at the time on how to give women suffrage. Eventually how we won was the 19th amendment,” Botwick said.
The library also wants to advertise that the CSWR is a tool that all students can use to their advantage for their classwork.
“Another idea behind the exhibit is to show another way the university libraries can support learning,” Botwick said.
Botwick said an important part of the exhibit was to emphasize the time period in which all of this was happening in order to contextualize the information.
“It’s a really complex history and it can’t be reduced,” Botwick said.
Another part of the exhibit consisted of a voting booth, encouraging students to go online and “vote,” essentially taking a quiz on the information provided in the exhibit. Two winners chosen weekly will receive a $10 Lobo cash card.
This display is also relevant to the “And Yet She Persisted” humanities project that the Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication (DISC) is conducting.
The exhibit was fairly inexpensive and the library hopes to display more exhibits relevant to current events happening in the future.
This exhibit was put together by UNM LibrariansBotwick and Heather Maez, Marketing Manager Patricia Campbell, CSWR Archivist Nancy Brown-Martinez and CSWR Conservation technician Jennifer Eggleston.
Megan Gleason is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @fabflutist2716
