Legal Research

Justice Walsh Bradley Gives Delightful Talk on Wisconsin Women's Legal History

Last evening I had the treat of hearing Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley speak at a meeting of the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin. Her topic was Wisconsin women's legal history.

Not only was the subject on of particular interest to me but Justice Walsh Bradley is a wonderful story teller and really made the topic come alive. She took us through the history of women's legal rights and legal practice in our state using first hand accounts of the remarkable Wisconsin women that made it happen.

I was particularly moved by the story of Louise J. Smith, who attended the first women's suffrage convention in Seneca Falls at age 12 and was one of only two women in attendance who lived to see her dream of suffrage come true with the ratification of the 19th amendment at age 84. See the neat newspaper clipping about it from the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Full post as published by WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library on March 10, 2010 (boomark / email).