Women 2000 - Press Release

Press Release

Worcester Women's History Project holds press conference

Announces second year of funding from Massachusetts Legislature

1998

Worcester, August 13, 1998: The Worcester Women's History Project will hold a press conference with Representative Harriette Chandler of Worcester to announce its second year of funding from the Massachusetts State Legislature on Thursday, August 13th at 4:30 pm at the Worcester Historical Museum, 30 Elm Street, Worcester, MA.

The Worcester Women's History Project has recently commissioned four internationally known artists to paint the portraits of four important Worcester County women: Abby Kelley Foster, Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton and Lucy Stone. These portraits will hang in Worcester's historic Mechanics Hall. Local artist Charlotte Wharton will paint the portrait of Abby Kelley.

In the year 2000, the project will stage an historical reenactment of the first National Woman's Rights Convention held in Worcester in the year 1850. Mechanics Hall will be the site of the performance on the weekend of October 20-21. The reenactment will coincide with a contemporary conference which will address current women's issues at Worcester's Centrum Centre.

Ms. Louisa Burns-Bisogno has been hired as the scriptwriter for the reenactment. She is an award winning playwright well known for her treatment of historical subjects. She recently wrote Mary Silliman's War for television; it is a film about the American Revolution seen through the eyes of a Connecticut housewife.

WWHP members are also at work on the creation of a Women's History Heritage Trail for central Massachusetts. The mission of the Worcester Women's History Project is to raise awareness of the history of the women of Worcester County and to create national recognition of the role Worcester played in the history of the women's rights movement.