Historian to explore the history of women's suffrage in Wyoming

Dec. 3—Forget any preconceived notions about women's suffrage in Wyoming — Casper-based historian Kylie McCormick is visiting Cheyenne to set the record straight.

And there's a chance that some people might meet her ideas with some resistance.

"The controversy is over who convinced William Bright, president of the Council of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature, that women's suffrage was the answer to his problems," she said in an interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Thursday. "That giving women the right to vote would be the way to address (the 15th Amendment)."

In short, she argues that women's right to vote was potentially motivated by the Wyoming Territory's desire to vote against the passing of the 15th Amendment, which outlawed voter discrimination on the grounds of race.

But the entirety of the presentation will cover much more.

McCormick's research began in 2019, when she first transitioned into a full-time career as a historian. Though the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to return to the federal sector for a period of time to make ends meet, she has once again been working in full-time private research since August.

Of particular interest to her have been the role of antisemitism in Wyoming, research on the origins of the state flag, and, primarily, the history of women's rights in the Equality State.

On Dec. 10, McCormick will visit the Laramie County Library to present "51 Years of Freedom," a presentation and discussion that focuses on the early days of women's rights, from its introduction in 1869 to passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

In this two-hour event, she will attempt to reframe the contributions made by suffragettes Grace Raymond Hebard and Esther Hobart Morris through a more broad analysis of women's impact on the state as a whole.

"I think that there's something about Western migration — about what it takes to build a city and build a community — how it doesn't just take men alone in order to make that happen," McCormick said. "But it becomes a lot more obvious for the men who are in the West during this time period that women are equal as citizens."

Because of the women's suffrage laws, Wyoming became a state of radical firsts.

Not only was it the first state to allow women to vote, it also granted the right for women to hold office, the right to hold property separate from their husbands, and, regardless of whether it was fully followed, the right to equal pay between male and female teachers.

This resulted in an unprecedented number of women who entered positions of power — like May Preston Slosson, the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in philosophy and the first to serve as a chaplain to a state penitentiary; Eunice G. Anderson, the first state archivist of Wyoming; and Esther Hobart Morris, the country's first female justice of the peace.

Despite the impact of being the first state to pass full voting rights before statehood, and the right to vote in 1890, when Wyoming became the 44th state, McCormick said that this period of history is often forgotten — or, as is the case with her upcoming presentation, incorrectly refuted by historians.

"This 51-year period is a really, really incredible period that we've sort of lost," she said. "We've lost the vision of it in our state. It's a period where there's a lot of women taking on leadership roles."

The most controversial example she intends to explore is the downfall of Hebard.

An accomplished professor at the University of Wyoming and the first woman admitted to the Wyoming State Bar Association, Hebard established the school's first library and was known for being a rigorous leader and suffragette. At one time, she was greatly acclaimed for authoring a biography on Sacajawea in 1933 — a project that took her more than 20 years to complete.

Though she sourced her information through oral histories of the Shoshone people, much of the story was determined to be fictional and exaggerated by Hebard, posthumously tarnishing her reputation as a result.

To a lesser extent, similar disputes have plagued the work of Morris. Either way, one of the main contrarians to each of these histories is the acclaimed historian T.A. Larson.

"Larson is the standard narrative on women's suffrage in Wyoming, but there has not been an academic challenge to his narrative on this history in our state," she said. "Ultimately, pretty much everyone who's handled the story has had to agree with him."

McCormick will be exploring a dense streak of history, but for history buffs, it's well worth delving into. It's best not to spoil it all here.

"I don't want to totally destroy T.A. Larson and his career and everything that he did, but I do think that it's time to critique him," she said. "He shouldn't be the standard narrative on women's suffrage in Wyoming."

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.