The Power of Women Collection

Margaret Brent, English immigrant to the Colony of Maryland, was the first woman to request a vote in America. Brent is hailed as a feminist for advancing the rights of women with her insistent advocacy for her legal prerogatives as an unmarried gentlewoman of property. The museum features exhibits that tell her story and role in St. Mary’s City. The St. John's site archaeology museum, located above the exposed foundations of the house where Brent appealed to the Assembly, includes an exhibit devoted to her life. The Historic St. Mary's City grounds also include a garden and gazebo dedicated in memory of Brent. 

Daring, courageous African-American women have helped change the fabric of America through their actions. They have made life-changing innovations, fought against injustices, given women a voice through voting rights, created expressive and traditional works of art, and guided their families on the home front. Often hidden from acclaim and notoriety, they are catalysts of societal advancement, and Maryland is proud to be their home. Start your journey here.

Get your bearings at The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, then drive the byway to see the sites where her early life unfolded. The visitor center includes exhibits and a theater that paint a picture of Tubman’s life and work while enslaved, as a freedom seeker, conductor on the Underground Railroad, women’s suffragist, Civil War spy, nurse and scout, and more.

See the site where Harriet Tubman carried out her first daring public act of defiance. In this store, a teenaged Tubman refused to obey an overseer and stop a disobedient slave from leaving the store. The overseer grabbed a two-pound iron weight and hurled it toward him. The weight struck young Tubman in the head, almost killing her and causing a severe injury that troubled her for the rest of her life, giving her visions. 

Relax with a drink and a sunset view on the deck of the Kitty Knight House, while pondering how this brave woman fended off invading British troops during the War of 1812 from burning her home. Now an inn and fine dining restaurant with an award-winning menu, the home features a painting showing the historic scene with this special American heroine.

Mary Pickersgill sewed the Star-Spangled Banner that was hoisted over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. She was commissioned by Major George Armistead to make a flag for Baltimore's Fort McHenry that was so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a great distance. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House describes Pickersgill's flag-making business and War of 1812 history. Living historians depict women sewing the Star-Spangled Banner that flew over the fort. At Fort McHenry, exhibits describe the Battle of Baltimore and the flag Pickersgill created.

Tour the St. Mary’s Spiritual Center & Historic Site where Mary Lange, born Elizabeth Clarisse Lange, became an African-American religious sister and foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. She established this congregation to allow African-American women to enter religious life in the Catholic Church. The historic site includes the Mother Seton House, the Historic Seminary Chapel and a visitor center. 

Tour Evergreen Mansion where Mary Elizabeth Garrett, suffragist and philanthropist, lived with her family. Garrett was the youngest child and only daughter of John W. Garrett, president of the B & O Railroad. Mary Garrett donated money to start the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in 1893 on the condition that the school would accept female students "on the same terms as men." She founded the Bryn Mawr School, a private college-preparatory school for girls in Baltimore. In her later years, she collaborated with her longtime friends, Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw, to try to secure the right for women to vote in the United States. Evergreen was the Garrett's home for two generations (1878-1942) and is a superb example of Gilded Age architecture on 26 landscaped acres. Visitors can stroll the grounds, enjoy a concert, film or lecture or contemporary art exhibits in the gallery.

Discover the journey Lillie Carroll Jackson and others took to change the nation for all Americans by fighting for civil rights by visiting the museum that bears her name. One of the NAACP's most cherished goals was to end lynching in the United States. Galvanized by the last recorded lynching in Maryland, Lillie Carroll Jackson, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Carl Murphy, Thurgood Marshall, Margaret Carey and their many allies worked tirelessly toward ending the practice of lynching and other racial injustices in our country. The museum operates in what was once Jackson's home in Baltimore.

Walk through the home of Clara Barton, a pioneering Civil War nurse known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” who later founded the American Red Cross. The national historic site interprets the early history of the American Red Cross. The home also served as an early headquarters of the organization. Through a guided tour, gain a sense of how Barton lived, and worked in her unusual home, where she spent the last 15 years of her life.

Learn about female scientists and their contributions to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research through exhibits at the museum. Katherine Johnson, the mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions, is one example. Johnson was featured in the film Hidden Figures about black female mathematicians who worked behind the scenes at NASA during the Space Race of the 1960s. Other "Hidden Figures" include NASA supervisor and mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and NASA engineer Mary Jackson.

Discover fascinating women of Maryland who have made incredible accomplishments in a variety of career areas. The Maryland Women’s Heritage Center honors Maryland’s historical and contemporary renowned women and girls who have been inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, as well as the Unsung Heroines who have shaped their families and communities. Women leaders are celebrated in law, government and public service; arts and culture; health, sciences and technology; education and communication; civil rights and community service; and business and industry. The “Maryland Women's STEM Exhibit” commemorates the remarkable contributions of Maryland women in science, technology, engineering and math, and the exhibit "Images and Expressions: Maryland Women in the Arts" reflects creative women who have enhanced our engagement with the Arts.

Explore more than six miles of trails through a premier conservation area in Olney named for Rachel Carson, the writer, environmental activist and Montgomery County resident who wrote the book “Silent Spring” about the decline of migratory bird populations following the use of the pesticide DDT.  The book gave voice to the environmental movement and mobilized banning the use of DDT. This 650-acre park provides opportunities for quiet enjoyment of the natural environment that Rachel loved.

Stay in the former home of Barbara Fritchie, a Unionist during the Civil War who became famous as the heroine of the 1863 poem "Barbara Fritchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier. The poem describes her plea to an occupying Confederate general to "Shoot if you must this old gray head, but spare your country's flag." The home is now a peer-to-peer accommodation. Artifacts from the home are on display at the Heritage Frederick Museum. Fritchie died three months after the 1863 Confederate occupation of the City of Frederick. Her grave is at the Mount Olivet Cemetery along with a memorial. The cemetery has interpretive exhibits, a self-guided tour, occasional guided tours, special events and lecture programs.

Tour two homes in which Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born Roman Catholic Saint, lived. She established the first Catholic girls' school in the nation in Emmitsburg and founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity. From that point on she became known as "Mother Seton." The Historic Homes Tour also includes the peaceful grounds, historic cemetery and the Basilica where Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's remains are entombed. A museum at the shrine depicts Seton’s life through exhibits and a film. 

Explore the African-American experience in Hagerstown and Washington County through exhibits and artifacts collected from prominent local families. The displays and exhibits demonstrate the roles women played as community and family leaders, the courageous risks they took to achieve their goals, and the legacy they left behind. The collection and museum were established by Mrs. Marguerite Doleman, whose vision is now carried by Alesia Parson McBean.