Engines of Change: A Suffrage Centennial

Seal Cove’s major exhibit, Engines of Change: A Suffrage Centennial, focuses on the role the automobile played in women’s independence and suffrage, and how improvements in technology were harnessed to mobilize social movements. 

The exhibit delves into the history of the fight for women’s suffrage, how women mobilized their messages across multiple generations, and the legacy and continuing stories of those battles today. As a new technology, the automobile was instrumental in bringing about social, economic, and personal freedoms for women one hundred years ago – whether they were advocating for their right to vote, proving their skills behind the wheel, or driving just for the love of it. 

The exhibit features adventurers, inventors, race car drivers, activists, and other women from all walks of life who used the automobile as a means of breaking out of their traditional roles. In addition, we highlight two women, Alice Burke and Nell Richardson, who in 1916 were the first people to drive a loop around the US; their mission –  promoting voting rights for women.

In partnership with the Maine Suffrage Centennial.