Celebrate Women’s History Month with a special LexSeeHer Speaker Series event featuring author and historian Mary Keenan. We will discuss Mary’s inspiring and newest book Petitions: A Patriot Legacy!

For most of America’s history, women were excluded from voting, but Lexington women still took action when they believed something needed to be done to change the political landscape. We will pay special attention to the women who signed petitions, including women featured in the new LexSeeHer monument “Something Is Being Done.” Mary Keenan is a LexSeeHer Advisory Board Member, and also the author of In Haste Julia, a book focussed on Julia Robbins Barrett - another important woman celebrated in the forthcoming monument. There will be time for questions and answers. If you are excited to learn more about Lexington women, don’t miss this event! You do not need to have read the book in advance, but books will be available for purchase and for signing should you wish to take a copy home. Copies of the book can be purchased at Buckman Tavern’s Gift Shop in advance of the event or can be borrowed from Cary Library.

Join us to learn more about petitions and the Lexington residents who signed them! Moderated by Jessie Steigerwald (LexSeeHer).

Attendance is on a first-come basis.

About the Book :
In this book Mary Keenan shows how women shaped American history in the 19th century through one of the few forms of political action available to them at the time. Drawing on a treasure-trove of primary sources, Keenan interweaves social history and individual stories to make a compelling case for the important if neglected role of petitions in American politics. This close account of the women and men of Lexington and what propelled them to engage this form of political activity sheds new light on how petitions shaped modern democracy in 19 th century America. The book’s focus on efforts to protect the right of the enslaved, the politically disenfranchised, and the unjustly convicted also remind us of the long histories behind current struggles for rights and justice.

About our speakers:

Mary Keenan, Clerk of the Lexington Historical Society for ten years, again focuses on the 19th century to remind everyone of Lexington’s continued leadership in the growth of the United States. Honored as Lexington’s Secondary School Teacher of the year, she has also been recognized by the Lexington and the MA DAR, MA Council for Social Studies, and the New England History Teachers’ Association. With an A.B. in History and an Ed.M. from Tufts, Mary began her thirty-five year teaching career in Lexington at William Diamond Junior High, continuing at Jonas Clarke Junior High and Lexington High School. The author for ancillary materials for Holt Rinehart and Winston’s Discovering American History, her biography In Haste, Julia about East Lexington’s Julia Robbins was the outgrowth of her research and curriculum work on the role of women in history.

Jessie Steigerwald founded LexSeeHer in March 2020 and joyfully serves as the organization’s President. Among Jessie’s activities for LexSeeHer, she leads the Research Team and coordinates the annual 1769 Spinning Protest Tableau. She is organizing the 2024 Unveiling Ceremony, the Living Herstory project, and the Coordinated First Look events which will run throughout Lexington’s celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington.

Jessie helped establish the Lexington Community Coalition and worked with a large team of volunteers to create the Coalition Mask Network. The group sewed more than 32,000 masks during the height of the pandemic shut-down.

Presented in partnership with LexSeeHer and the Lexington Historical Society.

This program is made possible by the generous donors to the Cary Library Foundation.