King Manor honors women’s movements to mark 100th anniversary of 19th Amendment

The King Manor Museum announced the creation of an exhibition and academic catalogue highlighting the efforts of women historians. Photo courtesy of King Manor Museum

By Rachel Vick

The historic King Manor Museum in Jamaica will mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage with a special program honoring the contributions and legacy of women in historic preservation.

The program and academic catalog “Queens of King Manor” is set to open in September and will examine the way material objects reflect women’s movements and society from the colonial era through the 20th century. The museum will feature a physical collection and illustrated catalogue, as well as an online component exploring citizenship, voting rights and the reality that many women’s rights movements did not actually include all women.

Celebrating women’s contributions is an appropriate choice for King Manor, which would not be around today without a group of women committed to the preservation of history. The King Manor Association of Long Island worked to save the historic home, owned by Rufus King, a member of the Continental Congress and a signatory to the Constitution.

King Manor is the first small historic house museum in New York City to have a professionally published academic catalog, with support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.

“King owned 160 acres of land and developed it as a successful working farm without slave labor at a time when his contemporaries relied on that work force,” said foundation director Kathryn M. Curran. “This house museum is moving forward to embrace the diversity of its neighborhood with educational and cultural offerings"