Who were the 32,000 women who signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition?
Over 32,000 women from all walks of life signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition. But who were these women? And how could their stories be told? This was the problem facing the team who created the He Tohu exhibition and the NZHistory online suffrage database.
Crowdsourced biographies
The answer? Crowdsourced biographies. With the help of passionate genealogists, librarians, students, historians and more, biographies of those who signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition have been streaming in, filling the gaps and bringing to light many stories in the process.
A panel of staff at Archives New Zealand and Manatū Taonga will share their insights into the crowdsourced biographies, as well as some of the fascinating biographies themselves.
About the panel
Stefanie Lash, Senior Archivist and He Tohu lead curator, Archives New Zealand; Danielle Ashby-Coventry, Archivist, Archives New Zealand are responsible for editing and uploading the biographies to He Tohu, alongside the Research and Publishing Group at Manatū Taonga. Other panelists include Martha van Drunen, Digital Publishing Editor, and Jamie Mackay, Digital Production Lead, from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
The panel will be facilitated by Jared Davidson, a Senior Archivist Ohu Hāpori at Archives New Zealand and a curator of He Tohu.
Date: Tuesday, 21 May, 2019
Time: 12:10pm to 1:00pm
Location: Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon