Otter Tail County Historical Society Annual Meeting

The 94th annual meeting of the Otter Tail County Historical Society will be held on Thursday, November 4, 2021 via Zoom. Members will receive a mailed invitation. Send back payment or buy tickets by clicking the Buy Now button. Please sign-up by October 29. If you have any questions please contact LeAnn Neuleib via email lneuleib@otchs.org or call 218-736-6038 to sign up.

Following a brief business meeting guest speaker Anna M. Peterson will present "Scandinavian Immigrants and the Fight for Women's Suffrage".

Anna Peterson is associate professor of history at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She also serves as editor for the Norwegian-American Historical Association. Her many publications include articles on the SWSA published in Minnesota History and The Journal of American Ethnic History.

During the women’s suffrage movement, Minnesota was home to one of the only ethnic suffrage organizations in the country. The Scandinavian Woman Suffrage Association (SWSA) operated from 1907 to 1919 and used cultural connections to its ethnic communities to garner support for women’s suffrage at the state and national levels. Its leaders played on ethnic affiliation and identity to lobby Scandinavian-American legislators and members of the general public to vote for women’s enfranchisement. Anna Peterson’s talk will detail the history of the SWSA and the ways in which its membership’s varied ethnic and class backgrounds “spiced up” the women’s suffrage movement.