Anne B. Gass
Contact: agassmaine@gmail.com
Anne B. Gass is the author of Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage, published in 2014. Gass, who is Whitehouse’s great-granddaughter, speaks regularly on Florence Brooks Whitehouse and women’s rights history at conferences, historical societies, libraries, high schools, and for other groups.
She helped advise the Maine State Museum on developing an exhibit in honor of the 100-year anniversary of Maine’s ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote (opened March 2019). She serves as the Maine Coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail, a project of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites. She’s also serving on the steering committee for the Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative to help coordinate and encourage suffrage centennial activities in 2020, and as a Humanities Scholar to the Seal Cove Auto Museum in support of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to honor the suffrage centennial.
As a professional Gass has continued her great-grandmother’s activist tradition. She is the founder and principal of ABG Consulting LLC, a small business supporting nonprofits, local and state governments, and foundations in their efforts to help people in need build stable, productive lives. Gass has written over $163 million in successful federal grants since founding her business in 1993, working both in Maine and nationally.
Gass received her BA degree from Reed College in 1982 and a MA from the University of Maryland in 1987.
Talks Offered by Anne B. Gass
Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage
www.florencebrookswhitehouse.com
This talk is based on the above-named book I wrote about my great-grandmother, Florence Brooks Whitehouse, published in 2014. Florence was a novelist, painter, vocalist, and mother of three sons when she first joined the suffrage movement in 1914. We explore Florence’s life up to 1914 and her leadership in moving suffrage forward in Maine, joining forces with national leader Alice Paul in a desperate, last-ditch effort to ensure that the legislature ratified the 19th Amendment that would give women voting rights. Slides of historic photos accompany this lively talk, which lasts about 40 minutes. The length of the talk and the focus can be somewhat flexible depending on the needs and interests of the audience. It is suitable for libraries, historical societies, women’s groups, and high school and college students.
We Demand: America’s First Cross-Country Automobile Trip for a Cause
In September 1915 four women embarked in an open car from San Francisco’s Panama Pacific International Exposition on the country’s first cross-country road trip for a cause. They were carrying a petition to Congress and President Wilson demanding an amendment to the United States Constitution enfranchising women. Over primitive, poorly signed roads and through blazing heat, rain, snow, and mud, they battled their way across the country, stopping in towns along the way to collect more signatures and to raise awareness that most women in the country were prohibited from voting. I retraced their route in 2015 and blogged about it at www.suffrageroadtrip.com. This lively talk is accompanied by historic slides. The length of the talk and the focus can be somewhat flexible depending on the needs and interests of the audience. It is suitable for libraries, historical societies, women’s groups, and high school and college students.