Sewing and Learning 3

The Media Gallery

Education | Video | Triptychs

Hat Making Overview Lesson

DETAILS

Date

December 17, 2020

Part of Quadriptych 1: The 2020 Suffrage Centennial

This quadriptych celebrates the 2020 Suffrage Centennial from the lens of a Stowe Center suffrage collection item layered with making and learning. Viewers can learn how to make a replica of Isabella Beecher Hooker‘s American suffrage Phrygian-style hat, a treasured object from the Stowe Center’s collections by downloading the instructions and pattern. Online participants will need to assemble the supplies needed to complete this DYI project from home. Also included in this triptych is a “how to” instructional video by Rebecca Bayreuther Donohue, Stitcher and Pattern Maker, whose video provides an overview lesson to help you make your hat. The fourth item in the quadriptych is a talk by Dr. Shirley Wajda, Ph.D. in American Civilization, about nineteenth-century American sewing circles and the importance of the suffrage cap as well as topics related to women’s suffrage history, anti-slavery activism, and the history of voting in America. Activate this online learning at home alone, with some friends in your Pandemic pod, or create your own virtual sewing project circle. Print on 11” x 17” inch paper or tile the pattern printouts.

Related Library Items

Sewing and Learning 1, Sewing and Learning 2, Learning and Sewing 4

Description

Rebecca Bayreuther Donohue, Stitcher and Pattern Maker, provides an overview and general orientation lesson to help you make your own hat from the pattern provided (materials not included)

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.