Building the Ballot Box: Long Island’s Democratic History
On view in the LIM History Museum from February 20 through May 18, 2025.
Kelynn Z. Alder (b. 1959), “My America,” 2017, acrylic and oil on canvas. Long Island Museum
The Long Island Museum is pleased to have been selected by the Museum Association of New York as one of 12 venues in New York State to host “A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy” a humanities discussion series that includes the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s Museum on Main Street exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, on view February 20–April 6, 2025, in celebration of the upcoming US Semiquincentennial.
To complement this important traveling exhibition, Building the Ballot Box: Long Island’s Democratic History will explore how residents of Long Island have worked both inside and outside of formal government pathways and within the public sphere to ensure their voices and those of their neighbors are heard. Covering more than 250 years of Long Island history, from the indigenous communities of Long Island to George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, to the fight for Civil Rights and issues of immigration today, Long Islanders have continued to examine who is truly included in “we the people.” An important theme of the exhibition is the fight for women’s suffrage and the effort to advance women’s political participation in the 107 years since suffrage was achieved in New York State in 1917. This subject is highlighted by a major loan from the New York State Museum of a wagon used in suffrage rallies and parades in New York City and Long Island at the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibition will also focus on two trailblazing women who began their political careers in this region, Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) and Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011).
Alongside art and historical objects from the LIM’s own collection, many of which are being exhibited at the Museum for the first time, loans have been secured from institutions and private collectors across our region.
Exhibition funding for Building the Ballot Box is provided, in part, by:
The Smithtown Community Trust
Voices and Votes is a Museum on Main Street (MoMS) exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. It’s based on an exhibition by the National Museum of American History. It has been made possible in New York State by the Museum Association of New York. Support for MoMS in New York State has been provided by the United States Congress.
“A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy” humanities discussion programs are made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Additional funding from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation supports public events, community exhibitions, free public lectures, workshops for teachers, and community discussion programs.
