Borrowing from Our Foremothers: Reexamining the Women's Movement through Material Culture, 1848–2017 by Amy Helene Forss (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Borrowing from Our Foremothers: Reexamining the Women's Movement through Material Culture, 1848–2017 by Amy Helene Forss Susan Curtis Borrowing from Our Foremothers: Reexamining the Women's Movement through Material Culture, 1848–2017. By Amy Helene Forss. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. ix + 263 pp. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $60.00 cloth. Employing a combination of artifact study, primary sources, and interviews, Amy Helene Forss contributes to our understanding of the 169 years of women's struggle for suffrage and equal rights. Forss selected thirty artifacts that highlight the diversity of the women involved in the movement and organized them in groups of three per chapter, explaining her symbolic choice to reflect the "ancient symbol of femininity, the triangle," and her examination of the past, present, and future of the movement (8). She further divides the book into three parts. Part 1 explores the history of the women's suffrage movement from its birth to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Part 2 examines the work of Black and LGBTQ women to affect social change in the twentieth century. Part 3 highlights women's involvement in the legal sphere and the visual arts. In this section, Forss also considers an alternate viewpoint to the women's movement by including the work done by Phyllis Schlafly that effectively stopped the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982. Using material culture as a lens to broaden our understanding of this history, Forss provides a glimpse into the lived experiences of the diverse groups associated with these artifacts and their contributions to the women's movement. Unfortunately, all the artifacts' images are printed in black and white and grouped in the book's middle. Printing the images in col-or on heavier paper and moving them to their respective chapters would have given them the authority they deserve and encouraged a more intimate interaction between artifact and viewer. The power of the iconic baby blue T-shirts of the 1977 National Women's Conference torchbearers and the rich rosewood and smooth ivory components of Susan B. Anthony's 1888 gavel are lost in the black and white images. The appendix offers a convenient compilation of textual material important to the women's movement, including speeches given by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Phyllis Schlafly. Forss also includes a listing of "foremothers" that will help readers put into context some of the lesser-known women discussed. With the exception of the pussyhats worn in the 2017 nationwide Women's March, none of the artifacts have a direct link to the Great Plains. However, the concise standalone chapters will appeal to readers who are interested in adding to their knowledge of the women's movement through the context of the artifacts that were created or used by the women involved in its history. Susan Curtis Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Interior Design, and Hospitality Management North Dakota State University Copyright © 2023 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln