Eight Sites in Chaicaoland Honoring Notable Women-- Part 2

FRANCES WILLARD HOUSE

The only woman to have a statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. capitol =when it first opened.  Frances Willard spent most of her life in Evanston -- or at least recuperating there at her "rest cottage" after traveling all over for her causes.  Her life can be seen in what is considered the oldest house museum in the country (in operation since 1900 and the first museum dedicated to a woman).

It is owned by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which she founded in 1883.

She was not the humorless ax-wielding Carrie Nation, but the woman often referred to as "the mother of grass-roots organizing."  She went through life tirelessly working for women's suffrage, labor reform and peace activism among other causes.

Here, you will also find "Gladys," the bicycle she learned to ride at age 53 and which led to her 1895 best-selling book "How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle."

Frances Willard House, 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston; 847-328-7500 or www.franceswillardhouse.com.

--RoadDog