New Freeman House and Museum Exhibits Open in Mar.

From Historic Vienna: Two new exhibits open March at the Freeman Store and Museum: The Women’s Rights Movement in 1917 and Vienna’s History Through Time, which celebrates Fairfax County’s 275th anniversary. The women’s rights exhibit will be available March 1, and the county’s anniversary showcase will open March 12.

Last year’s first-floor “hallway” suffrage exhibit highlighted women’s rights prior to the Civil War. This year’s exhibit fast forwards to 1917 when National Woman’s Party members wrote the book on White House protests. This is the second in a five-year series of exhibits chronicling the struggle for women’s rights.

The exhibit describes the protestors’ arrest and their ensuing “Night of Terror” in the Occoquan Prison. It showcases various bios, cartoons, and photographs of key players involved, workhouse conditions, and the suffrage movement in general. Don’t miss the exhibit’s “selfie” opportunity: You can get a photo taken while wearing a replica of the purple and white 20th century suffrage sash next to a life-size cutout of women’s rights activist Alice Paul.

The second-floor exhibit celebrates Fairfax County’s 275th anniversary with a physical timeline, which circles the room, displaying key events that took place around Vienna and the county during the past nearly three centuries. Descriptions, photos, drawings, artifacts, and reproductions manifest specific key events, people, places, and items that had local, state, and national impact.

These exhibits will be on display through the remainder of the year during Freeman Store and Museum regular hours, 12-4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. An opening reception will be hosted from 2- 4 p.m. Sunday, March 12. Refreshments will be served, and exhibit creators will be on hand to answer questions.

For more information, please contact Historic Vienna, Inc. at 703-938-5187.

Image courtesy of Historic Vienna