Explore Who Can Vote? as it travels across the country this June

This summer, the Gilder Lehrman Institute invites you to view Who Can Vote?: A Brief History of Voting Rights in the US as it tours the country. 

From June 3 through June 28, this traveling exhibition—created as part of The Right to Vote: The Role of States and the US Constitution—can be seen at the following museums, libraries, and historic sites:

• Brooklyn Public Library, Bay Ridge Branch, 7223 Ridge Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY 11209

  • As part of this exhibition tour stop, the library has also partnered with Stand4 Gallery and Community Art Center (414 78th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11209) on a companion art exhibition, Uncommitted, on view June 14 through August 10. The show focuses on civic literacy, engagement, and social matters which affect and reflect the daily lives of folks within Bay Ridge.

• Museum of the Albemarle, 501 S Water Street, Elizabeth City, NC 27909

• New Hampshire State Library, 20 Park Street, Concord, NH 03301

  • This exhibition tour stop is being held in conjunction with New Hampshire Humanities ’ Knit Democracy Together project. The exhibition will be on display alongside a collaboratively knitted and crocheted model of the New Hampshire State House, on view June 4 through July 2. A special program celebrating the exhibition, the Knit Democracy Together project, and New Hampshire Humanities 50th anniversary will be held on June 13.

• Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, 641 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14202

• Reedy Chapel AME Church, 2013 Broadway Avenue J, Galveston, TX 77550

  • This exhibition tour stop will take place in conjunction with Reedy Chapel’s annual Juneteenth celebration, held at one of the locations in which General Order #3 was read, announcing the end of slavery in Texas.

About Who Can Vote?

This exhibition examines voting rights with an emphasis on the role of the US Constitution and the interplay between the states and federal government in determining who is allowed to vote. Beginning with the founding era and going up to the election of 2000, this exhibition explores the complex history of the right to vote that forms the core of our nation’s democracy. Topics include voting as a constitutional right, women’s suffrage, Reconstruction and Jim Crow era voting rights, the Civil Rights Movement, and the enfranchisement of Indigenous peoples. Following the tour, the exhibition will be available for Affiliate Schools, libraries, museums, and historic sites to rent. 

Visit our exhibition page to learn more, and email exhibitions@gilderlehrman.org with any questions.

Note: Who Can Vote? will be available for purchase beginning July 1, 2024. Contact exhibitions@gilderlehrman.org to pre-order your copy.

About The Right to Vote

The Right to Vote: The Role of States and the US Constitution is a multi-year project to develop a high school program on the role of the states in determining and protecting voting rights. As part of this project, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has produced a suite of resources available to high school students, their teachers, and the general public on the history of voting rights. In addition to the traveling exhibition, the resource suite includes

• New lesson plans in our Teaching Civics through History model

• Historical background essays

• A digital companion to the traveling exhibition

• Voting Rights Prizes to outstanding student work demonstrating a commitment to civic engagement

• A Voting Rights Forum, hosted to commemorate Constitution Day 2023

This project is supported by the 2022 Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics Award, presented by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics Award aims to further an exemplary and ambitious project that would improve civics education in the nation’s elementary, secondary, or high school classrooms. The Institute’s project was selected from proposals submitted by some of the partners in the Civics Renewal Network (CRN), a consortium founded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to strengthening civic life in the United States.

To access The Right to Vote resource suite, visit gilderlehrman.org/right-to-vote. 

Email education@gilderlehrman.org with any questions regarding the project.