Beaver Island Historical Society site

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Gutsy Women of Beaver Island

Welcome to the Historical Society's Women's History Exhibit. This exhibit honors Beaver Island women who accomplished extraordinary things. It tells the stories of women who transformed the island, raised families, and stretched themselves beyond what was expected.

Each year we will select one woman from each of these eras:
❖ Early Island History to Mormon Occupation (up to the 1860s)
❖ Post Mormon - Jazz Age (1860s - 1980s)
❖ Great Depression - Me Era (1930s-1970s)
❖ Modern Era (1970s-2000)

For over 60 years, the Historical Society has been preserving and sharing the Island’s history and women have often been an invisible participant in that history. Our goal in this exhibit is to inspire our visitors to recognize everyone’s experience and to gain an understanding that society’s expectations can be overcome to achieve a goal. The women we honor with this exhibit performed the important role of mother, homemaker or career woman while, at the same time, expanding upon that role to make this Island and the world a better place.

The women we honor lived various kinds of lives, but all these gutsy women stepped beyond their prescribed role to benefit society. Some of the women we honor performed dangerous social activism. They spoke out, risking ridicule, banishment or worse. Some excelled doing what had previously been men’s work’ and opened avenues to women who followed them.

Others filled the role expected of women in their era, but did so with extraordinary courage and grace. These wives and mothers lived on Beaver Island most of their life, raising children and supporting their husbands in their work. They molded the leaders of tomorrow all the while hauling water, raising their food and clothing their family. See more about this kind of early life on the Island visit our Island Life exhibit on the 2nd floor of the old Print Shop building.

We wish to celebrate the contributions women have made to Beaver Island and the broader world. We hope that recognizing the specific achievement of these women adds depth to your understanding of history. Even more importantly, we honor these women to encourage future generations of women to follow their dreams.

Women's History Month
In March 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring Women’s History Week to align with International Women’s Day (March 8th) which has been recognized across the world since March 1911. The following year, on August 4, 1981, the U.S. Congress established Women’s History Week as a federally recognized commemoration of the accomplishments, perspectives, and experiences of women in the United States with a Joint Resolution, Public Law 97-28. This week became a month-long celebration in 1987 when Congress passed Public Law 100-9 and then passed subsequent resolutions requesting that the U.S. President make an annual declaration. Since 1995, each U.S. President has declared March to be Women’s History Month.