112/7/D3

Jacket

Green blazer with a Legislative Page patch on the front. The patch is a yellow oval embroidered in green with the state of Vermont and the inscription, "VERMONT LEGISLATIVE PAGE".

2022.6.1

Worn by Diane Kearns Duncan who, along with Lea Sikora Finck, was the first female legislative page in 1969.

Political Button

Vermont Women are Valuable in dark blue letters on a white background. The center has a dark blue background with a white bird and the female symbol. The pin on the back is of the clasp variety.

2015.50.12

Rita K. Edwards, the donor of this pin, was on the staff of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women and active in the women's rights movement in the 1970s. In advance of the Vermont Women's Town Meeting in 1977, Rita Edwards and Faire Edwards (not related) of the Vermont Gray Panthers came up with this pin. An account in the Burlington Free Press on March 2, 1977, gives a brief history of the pin and the event.

Political Button

Green button with bold white lettering that reads, "ERA YES" from the 1986 campaign to add an equal rights amendment to the state constitution.

1988.28.21

Vermonters voted on and rejected an equal rights amendment to the state constitution in 1986. Here is an Associated Press account at the time.
" Vermonters have defeated an equal rights amendment to the state Constitution by a narrow margin, according to unofficial returns. With 88 percent of the precincts reporting today, 49 percent of the voters cast ballots in favor of the amendment, while 51 percent voted against the ERA. Sixteen states have ERAs in their constitution. The amendment read: ?Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the State of Vermont or any of its political subdivisions on account of the sex of the individual.?

Political Button

Lavender button with design in center and in white letters: "Nov./ 15-16/ '81" Printed around edge in blue letters: "Women's Pentagon Action/ Accion de Mujeres al Pentagono" Pin on back. Maker printed along bottom edge: "Donnelly Colt Buttons" with address, and "Women's Pentagon Action, 339 Lafayette St., NYC" with telephone number.

2014.48.16

About this group and the event on the pin from https://activistswithattitude.com/womens-pentagon-action/

"In November 1980 and again in ‘81, women gathered at the Pentagon to mourn, rage, empower, and defy, in a pageant-like demonstration that combined rational thought with deep emotion. The idea for the Women’s Pentagon Action (WPA) emerged from an ecofeminism conference on Women and Life on Earth held in Amherst, MA in spring, 1980. The next fall, a spinoff group met to examine the connections between violence against women, racism, and the destruction of the earth.

In the first stage, thousands of women walked to the beat of a slow drum through Arlington Cemetery, past endless neat rows of tombstones. They were led by a giant Bread and Puppet Theatre papier-mâché figure. (The first year it was draped in black, the second in white....

The drumbeat changed to a faster, more insistent beat, and a fiery red puppet took the lead for the second stage. To the astonishment of the cynical press and Pentagon personnel who peered from the windows, women began to circle the building chanting, “No more war,” and “Take the toys away from the boys.”...

From rage evolved the third stage. Another puppet appeared to lead the way (the first year gold, the second year black). The empowerment puppet held a basket of scarves. The women helped themselves as they began to encircle the Pentagon, a building one mile in circumference. ...

The fourth stage began. Women who had taken workshops on nonviolent civil disobedience began the work of blocking three of the five major entrances to the Pentagon.

Other women, led by the Spinsters, a Vermont affinity group of feminist activists, began spinning webs of multi-colored yarns across two of the entrances to express their conviction that all life is connected. They decorated the webs with flowers, feathers, leaves and bells.


Another description:

"Four huge female puppets created by Bread and Puppet Theatre ( from Vermont) led some 2,000 women in a march past Arlington Cemetery to the Pentagon. There they encircled the building, put gravestones in the lawn, wove yarn across the entrances to symbolically reweave the web of life, and created rituals of mourning and defiance by chanting, yelling, and banging on cans. Over 140 women were arrested for blocking the doors at two entrances. They also blocked the Mall entrance, but no arrests were made there. Most arrestees pled "no contest" and were immediately sentenced to 10 days for first offenders or 30 days—the maximum—for second offenders. Thirty-four of the second offenders who received longer sentences were shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles and immediately sent 300 miles to a federal prison for women." -- Historic Pentagon Actions: 1980s to Present

Political Button

White button with blue lettering: "I OWN/ MY BODY/ BUT I/ SHARE" Pin on back. Maker along bottom edge: "Ferne Sales" with address, etc.

2014.48.24

A button that was available at the First National Women's Conference held in November 1977 in Houston, Texas. There is no information if this button was picked up there and if so, by whom. There also is no information as to what group might have produced this button.

Ribbon

Ribbon from the 75th Anniv. of the Women's Sufferage movement held August 26, 1995, in Montpelier, Vt. Lavender, satin finish, with purple lettering: "Woman Suffrage 1920-95." Accompanied by a 16-page booklet, containing mainly sponsors' advertisements with the day's schedule of activities.

1995.48

T-Shirt

Blue t-shirt with a red-and-white printed logo of three women's faces in profile and the inscription "WOMEN'S/MARCH/ON VERMONT/JANUARY 20, 2018".

2020.6.1

Worn by Sarah Dopp to the Women's March in Montpelier, Vermont, 2018.