ROCHELLE – The Rochelle Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Flagg Township Museum teamed up to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the passing of the 19^th Amendment.

On Sunday, Aug. 16, members of the Rochelle DAR, as well as the Flagg Township Museum director, dressed up as suffragists to celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote. The women dressed up in both traditional suffragist attire of long skirts and big hats from the 1920s as well as what they are calling modern suffragists with T-shirts spelling out suffragist.

While dressed up, the women held up signs and walked around different parts of the community to spread the word. The group started outside the museum downtown, walked around the block, along Route 251 and in front of City Hall before finishing back at the museum.

“While we didn’t get as many community members out at the museum as we would have liked, we did have a lot of people along the roads honking and acknowledging our cause,” said Lydia Roberts, member of the Rochelle DAR.

Along with the celebration that was held last Sunday, the Flagg Township Museum has two PowerPoints and a new exhibit focusing solely on women’s suffrage. The exhibit is titled “Cabinet of Curiosities” and displays a collection of hats and suffragist clothing as well as other memorabilia that was typical of the time period.

The exhibit will be on display at the museum through the end of August and can be viewed during museum business hours (Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) Everybody who participated in the event was honored to celebrate a monumental moment in history that began a lasting movement

“This was a very important movement that has had lasting ramifications for women,” Roberts said. “Whether that is women going into politics or other nontraditional roles that women weren’t normally expected to. There is a lot of long-term ripple effects that all stem from the passing of women’s suffrage.”