Old News: May Wright Sewall's impact on Indianapolis
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May Wright Sewall, circa 1885. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Today we celebrate the 182nd birthday of a woman who helped shape civic life in Indianapolis while fighting for women's suffrage nationwide.
Driving the (old) news: Born on May 27, 1844, May Wright Sewall was a peace activist and suffrage leader who arrived in 1874 to teach at Indianapolis High School.
- In the years that followed, she would lay the groundwork for a number of iconic Circle City institutions.
Zoom in: Sewall co-founded the Indianapolis Woman's Club in 1876 and established the Indianapolis Equal Suffrage Society in 1878.
- Upon joining the suffrage movement, she became one of Susan B. Anthony's top young lieutenants.
- The art association she formed in her home in 1883 eventually evolved into the Indianapolis Museum of Art, now Newfields.
- In 1888, she led a group of seven women to find a headquarters for the Indianapolis Woman's Club. But instead of renting space, she persuaded them to form a stock company open only to women to construct and own a building that became the Indianapolis Propylaeum.
- She was president of the National Council of Women of the United States from 1891-1895 and 1897-1899 and president of the International Council of Women from 1899-1904.
- In 1900, President William McKinley appointed her special representative to the Congress of Women at the Paris Exposition.
Yes, but: Sewall died in July 1920, one month before the 19th Amendment was ratified, securing women's suffrage.
- In 1923, the Sewall Memorial Torches were dedicated in her honor at the Herron Art Institute.
The latest: Her legacy just got a refresh. In February, the Propylaeum rebranded its top honor — formerly the May Wright Sewall Leadership Award — as simply "The May."