North Central Regional Driving and Prescott Walking Tours Completed

The North Central Regional Driving and the Prescott "Historic Women of Prescott" walking tours have been completed with an opening event in Prescott on October 15, 2011. Over 110 persons attended the inaugural walking tour with several volunteer tour guides and AWHT historians in attendance. Brochures with maps were distributed and are now available in the Chamber of Commerce Visitor's Center, Tourism Office, Yavapai-Prescott Conference Center, and the Sharlot Hall Museum. Copies can also be downloaded on this website.

The opening event ended with a reception on the Sharlot Hall Museum campus, where tour attendees could enjoy refreshments and discuss some of the remarkable women highlighted in the tours. AWHT thanks the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe for completely funding the regional driving tour, Kieckhefer Foundation for their grant toward partial funding of the walking tour, and also thanks the Elks Opera House Foundation, Westerners of Prescott Corral, and the Chamber of Commerce for providing the funds for the reception. We also gratefully acknowledge the support and able assistances as reception hosts from Sharlot Hall Museum staff and volunteers.

One of the "Historic Women of Prescott" October 15, 2011 inaugural walking tour groups led by Betsy Bykerk (far right in black). Betsy Bykerk is General Crook DAR Secretary and AWHT Volunteer Tour Director for Prescott women's history walking tours.

Arizona Humanities Council Awards AWHT Grant for Statewide Arizona Woman Suffrage Centennial Public Forums

In addition to matching funds from Arizona Public Service, the Arizona Humanities Council awarded AWHT the remaining necessary monies to present re-enactments of the earlier suffrage debates and to tell the story of the years of struggle for Arizona women's voting rights. The women of Arizona obtained suffrage through an initiative which was passed successfully in November of 1912, thus, 2012 is the centennial of woman suffrage as well as Arizona statehood. The public forums script will be prepared by AWHT historians and the Executive Director of the Arizona Centennial Theatre Foundation, Ben Tyler. The pro and con arguments re woman suffrage and introductions of the suffrage leaders including Josephine Brawley Hughes, the first territorial suffrage leader, Pauline Schindler O'Neill, teacher, member of the state House Legislature, and wife of Buckey O'Neill, and Frances Willard Munds, also a teacher, wife of John Munds, and the first woman to serve in Arizona state senate . Munds was the third woman in the nation to become elected to a state senate.

These suffrage centennial programs will also encourage audience participation, and will have a discussion period. They are scheduled throughout 2012, the Arizona statehood Centennial year, and will be held in Flagstaff, Prescott, Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma. The dates and times of each forum are listed on the AWHT Events Calendar which also depicts the Centennial Traveling Exhibition dates and venues. Advance press announcements will be distributed prior to each performance; all forums are free for community residents, tourists, and college students.

ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences now Coordinating AWHT Fiscal Affairs with ASU Foundation

We thank the ASU Institute for Humanities Research, for the past five years and more, of support and service in the coordination of all budget and fiscal reporting for AWHT. The ASU College of Liberal Arts has resumed this function, and will continue all negotiations with ASU Foundation as the AWHT fiscal officer. This collaboration is in effect throughout the AWHT developmental phase which ends early 2013. Then a scheduled more permanent structure will be established.

Website Expansion

AWHT continues website expansion with additional women and historic sites. Please review our listings which are categorized alphabetically, by region, and by theme. We are diligently seeking funds for another thirty women and sites designated by AWHT scholars. We thank Salt River Project for their partial funding of our expansion and will add to the site again, hopefully, in the near future, based upon the availability of funds.

AWHT Closing Comments from the Founding Director

As we close 2011, we again ask for your financial support in order to continue the expansion of Arizona women's history. We also welcome suggestion from our readers. We have hopes of adding other resources for serious history lovers, students, and researchers, on the website and to offer more public educational opportunities. Regarding financial assistance, we now have categories for charter patrons, the Sponsor a Woman on the Trail program which is geared to help support website maintenance and expansion, and our AWHT Honor Roll. For more information in these three categories, please click on AWHT Support.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM AWHT!  We extend greetings for a happy holiday season and the best in the New Year.

Joan Anderson Meacham