Looking ahead to the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 2020, the women’s suffrage movement and women-led activism was the subject of the National Youth Summit in May.
Hosted by History Colorado, the Smithsonian, and students at five other museums across the country, the live webcast brought students, scholars, teachers, policy experts, and activists together in a national conversation.
Cut and sew a bag from painted and folded rawhide. Learn from Aaron Klass, our very own historic craftsperson. $30 includes materials and refreshments. Members get a 10% discount. Appropriate for ages 16 and up. Call 970-785-2832 to reserve your spot today!
All across the fort, men drill in Reconstruction-era uniform, all in blues and grays. They pitch tents, clean their guns, and drink water from tin canteens. Heavy artillery, including cannons and mountain howitzers, is unloaded and set up. In the Soldiers’ Theatre, women in hoop skirts are gathered for domestic duties, kept energized by tea and conversation. And outside on the grounds, cavalry parade on horseback.
This isn’t an image of centuries past. This is a recollection of last year’s Memorial Day Encampment, a special living-history event hosted annually at Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center.
Hands-On History, a unique program at El Pueblo History Museum in Pueblo, Colorado, began several years ago as an after-school camp and has since evolved into an all-day educational experience. Most important, this program was designed to serve and support working families of Pueblo.
Coloradans love our local beer. The first locally brewed keg was tapped in Denver to rave reviews from residents at the end of 1859. Today more than 360 breweries throughout the state—encompassing both the world’s largest beermaking plant and the smallest nano-operations—pour locally made libations for appreciative patrons. In every corner of this rectangular patch of mountains and plains, liquid artisans are crafting an array of exceptional beverages that pair well with the joys of living here. An intrepid (and thirsty!) aficionado could watch the Colorado sunset with a different locally made beer in hand every evening for nearly a decade without repeating.
Our Colorado’s Reel History blog series showcases some of the many newspapers in our collection. Check out some clippings from the Rocky Ford Enterprise below, then read on for a short history of the paper.
While lots of cities had electric-powered streetcars, trolleys, and trams during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, relatively few had Birneys.
Birneys were the Volkswagen Beetles of the streetcar world: They were small, light, mass-produced, and relatively affordable. About six thousand of them were built from 1915 until 1930. Today only a handful of Birneys are left in the world, and perhaps a dozen of them are still being operated as rail lines.
Fort Collins’s Birney Car 21 is one of them, and it turns a century old this year. Its full name is Fort Collins Municipal Railway’s Birney Car 21, but people also call it “Car 21” or just “Birney.”