The Wyoming Historical Society uploaded their second episode of “Women of Wyoming [WoW], Then & Now,” with guest Kylie McCormick, a Wyoming historian. McCormick shared her research surrounding the negative reputation of Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, a woman historian and University of Wyoming educator in the late 1800’s.
“Women of Wyoming, Then & Now,” is a program aired on YouTube that interviews guests that bring to light important historical women that shaped Wyoming today. The host is Janelle Molony, an author, historian, and WoW project director, who guided the discussion with McCormick about the women’s suffrage movement in Wyoming.
“When I first started researching Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard and wanting to share her story around 2019, I actually received quite a bit of backlash from people who were not interested in her story because they thought that she was too controversial,” said McCormick. “I think that her reputation today does not match who she was in the past. They have a fairly negative perception about her: she’s this manipulator of history who’s going to put in facts and change facts to serve her own political agenda.”
McCormick’s research found that Hebard was not the manipulator of history that she was perceived to be, but a formidable woman who profoundly impacted the culture of Wyoming. She was a prominent member of the National American Suffrage Woman Association and served as the first first woman on the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees.
McCormick said, “She was a really incredible woman who was quite prolific and profoundly impacted the culture of Wyoming when she lived here… Grace had tooth and nail fought in order to get Governor Robert Perry to call an emergency session to have Wyoming ratify this 19th amendment, recognizing women’s right to vote nationally.”
“We need to be able to interpret and understand ourselves very plainly. Facts are facts. Just embracing equality and giving credit where credit’s due, and in this case it’s for Hebard,” said co-host Leslie Waggener, an archivist at the American Heritage Center.
Hebard is only one example of the other dozens of women in Wyoming’s history that Molony’s series bring to light and recognized for their accomplishments in women’s suffrage.
McCormick said, “I think women’s history, women’s diaries, women’s writing, art, textiles and things like that get cast aside, they say it’s not really significant. ‘No need to look there. There’s no story there.’ But there is a story to be told and read what other historians have said.”
“It’s important to remind our viewers that our own past actually informs our present,” said Molony. “Being able to connect and educate women everywhere, especially future women historians, is special.”
