Remembering Ruza

To start Women’s History Month, Haley (@loudlittlegirl) and I took a trip to Washington DC. This was something we had talked about for quite a while now. We have both been loving doing research on the history of the Women’s Suffrage movement, and its women. We have gone to see suffrage-related places in New York City, but there were quite a few places we wanted to see in DC, and we also wanted to go to the Library of Congress! So here’s a little recap of our weekend, including the places we saw if you need inspiration for your DC trip!

We took a bus from NYC early on Saturday morning. We got to watch the sunrise from the road. The trip took a little under 5 hours (with stops in Pennsylvania and Baltimore). We arrived at Union Station. We joked that this is where “Show Then Who You Are” happens in Suffs the Musical. This is the train station where suffragists arrived and left from when going on campaign tours, when coming to marches, or to picket. There is a picture of Ruza Wenclawska (Rose Winslow), Lucy Burns and Doris Stevens outside this train station that was taken in September 1914 right before Ruza and Lucy went to campaign in California, and Doris left for Colorado.

It was a beautiful day (a little too windy maybe), and we walked over to the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. It served as headquarters of the National Woman’s Party starting in 1929. In 1974, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. In 2016, it was designated a national monument. In 2016, the NWP donated the house and property to the National Park Service. The partnership between the NWP and the National Park Service ensures the care and preservation of collection items that document the founding of the Party, the history of the suffrage movement, the fight for the 19th amendment, and the ongoing struggle for women’s equality. Many of these collection pieces are on display at the Belmont-Paul museum.

You can view banners held by women picketing the White House, Alice Paul’s desk, Susan B Anthony’s desk, Alva Belmont’s desk, an original “Jailed for Freedom Pin” that Alice Paul gave to NWP members who served time in jail, paintings, photographs, keys to the DC jail where suffragists were imprisoned. And you walk around the rooms, you can look at the collection on display, and also learn more about the history of the suffrage movement. There is also a library with many books, and games and coloring activities for children and adults of all ages! It really was incredible to see so many of these artifacts!

The museum is free, and I think we spent about 45 minutes there.

We then walked over to the Library of Congress. We needed to have a timed-entry to go in – that is easy to do from your phone right outside the Library. We then went to get our reader cards because we wanted to go to the Manuscript room. Anyone over 16 years old, and with a government-issued ID can get a library card. Once we had our cards, we went over to the Manuscript room. We put our bags and coats in lockers, and then were able to ask to look at specific boxes from the National Woman’s Party papers that had photographs we were curious about. We looked through 3 boxes, and saw pictures of Ruza Wenclawska, Doris Stevens, Lucy Burns, Inez Milholland, Vida Milholland, Alice Paul, Edna St Vincent Millay, Vivian Pierce, and also photos from the different campaigns. It really was quite incredible to see all these photographs! We spent a little over 2 hours there I think, and we have easily spent more time there!!

Our day continued with a little walk down National Mall.

We briefly went to see where the first Congressional Union headquarters were. They rented the basement of 1420 F Street.

We ended our first day in DC at the theatre: we saw Shucked 🙂

On Sunday morning, we went to see the NWP headquarters around Lafayette Square.

Cameron House: NWP headquarters during the Silent Sentinels. There is a picture of Alice Paul leaving these headquarters to go picket in October 1917 – she was arrested not long after.

Jackson Place: NWP headquarters from 1918-1920. It used to be 14 Jackson Place, it is now 722 Jackson Place. Alice Paul unfurled the ratification banner from the balcony of these headquarters. The facade has been changed, and the balcony is no longer there.

Lafayette Square is where the suffragists picketed the White House. It is also where they burned Wilson’s speech.

We then stopped by the Smithsonian Museum of American History. We went to see their exhibits about democracy, and the history of voting rights in the United States (and the work there still is to do).

Through March, the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument is organizing free Silent Sentinels tours on Sundays. So we did that. They’ll go over the history of the march of 1913, and show you Pennsylvania Avenue. You will then walk over to Lafayette Square and hear about the history of the Silent Sentinels. Both Haley and I have done so much research now, that nothing was new, but I recommend to anyone who wants someone to take them to Lafayette Square and the headquarters, and wants to hear more about the Silent Sentinels!!

We then met with Carolyn (The Yellow Roses) and Kate (her mom). We met them through Suffs, and they’d offered to drive us to Occoquan when we visit DC. The four of us went to the Occoquan Workhouse, now the Lucy Burns museum. Lucy Burns and 71 other suffragists were imprisoned at Occoquan in 1917 for picketing the White House (or « obstructing traffic »). Ruza Wenclawska/Rose Winslow was sentenced to six months at Occoquan Prison on October 16, 1917, but they did not move her to Occoquan. On October 22, 1917, she was sentenced to an extra month, and she stayed in DC jail throughout her imprisonment. While in DC jail she spent some time in the hospital (where she and Alice Paul started the hunger strike), and she also spent some time in solitary. The Lucy Burns museum has information about the imprisonment of the suffragists, and also the history of the prison. The tour of the cells was more focused on the conditions of imprisonment in the 1970s/1980s, and there was no mention of the suffs with the guide we had that day.

We then went to the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial, not far from the Occoquan Workhouse (with a car). This was really special.They had the names of all the suffragists imprisoned for picketing. And this is the first time that I saw Ruza/Rose’s name with her married name added to her maiden name in anything related to suffrage! It’s always special to see Ruza’s name!! They had 20 panels with information about the history of the women’s suffrage movement. They also had statues of Alice Paul, Mary Church Terrell and Carrie Chapman Catt. They also had the original gate that was in front of the White House when the suffragists picketed!

This was the end of our DC trip. We then took a bus back to NYC.

It was a short visit, but we did so much!! I definitely want to go back, and spend more time at the Library of Congress!

I hope you enjoyed reading about this little trip!

Valentine

Hello, and welcome to another corner of the internet where I get to talk about Ruza Wenclawska even more.

When I created my Instagram account dedicated to my Ruza research in the summer 2024, I said I would maybe create a blog. Well, here it is.

So how did my research start?

My story with Ruza Wenclawska starts in April 2022 when I first saw Suffs at The Public Theatre. I had never heard about Ruza Wenclawska (or Rose Winslow) before then. To be honest, I hadn’t heard about many women who were portrayed in Suffs. Ruza was the character that I related to the most. I saw a lot of my grandma and my mom in her.

My grandma was a poet, playwright, feminist, activist, researcher in matriarchy, essayist, etc. My mom is an actor, director, activist, and she is very involved in my hometown’s local government opposition. I grew up going to the theatre and going to protests (I grew up in France, we start going to protests as babies!).

So figures like Ruza, who are both artists and activists are just very familiar and inspiring to me.

In 2022, I didn’t really look Ruza Wenclawska up in details after seeing Suffs. I’m not sure why, I just know I didn’t.

In 2024, Suffs came to Broadway. Once more, I was drawn to Ruza Wenclawska the most. And this time I did look her up, ha!

In April 2024, Laura Haywood gifted Kim Blanck (who played Ruza Wenclawska) a Playbill of a play that Ruza had been in in 1924: Desire Under The Elms. Seeing that Playbill in 2024 suddenly made Ruza real. I realized she had walked on this Earth not that long ago, and that she had lived in New York. Suddenly, I needed to find all the shows that Ruza had done, and in which theaters she had performed.

That’s how this research started. I was interested in learning more about her theatre career. Suddenly, I was looking for playbills on eBay, and looking for her name on Playbill.com and the Internet Broadway Database. I was surprised that even though Wikipedia said she was an actress and poet, there was no information about her theatre career. There was no information about what Ruza did after the 19th amendment was passed, and no one knew when she died. All of this troubled me. I couldn’t believe that this woman had been forgotten by history.

In 2023, I started my own genealogy research. That research gave me the tools to search census and immigration records, and it taught me how to use Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. So I looked for Ruza Wenclawska there. The first document I found was her 1921 passport application. That application gave me a picture of Ruza in 1921 which was exciting since all the pictures on the Internet were from 1915-1917. I also learned that Ruza went to Europe in the early 1920s. It gave me her address at the time of the application, and I learned she and Doris Stevens still saw each other in 1921 since Doris was her witness for identification. They actually lived near each other in the West Village. I then found immigration and census records for Ruza. My main question was: when did she die?

I had found her in the 1930 census as an inmate at Central Islip State Hospital, and then there was no trace of her, but I couldn’t find any death record.

Then comes in Janet Lindenmuth. She saw Suffs in June 2024, and looked Ruza up after the show, and thought it was curious no one knew when she had died too. I had tweeted about Ruza a lot, and Janet found me on Twitter thanks to my tweets. She shared with me a link to what she believed was Ruza’s death record. In mid June 2024, we learned Ruza Wenclawska died on April 16, 1934 in Islip, NY. Her name was in the New York State Death Index of 1934.

So now I knew when she died, but there were so many puzzle pieces missing still.

I decided to create an Instagram account dedicated to my research on Ruza: @rememberingruza

I wanted a space to share what I was finding on Ruza, but also a place where other people interested in learning about Ruza could find the information more easily, without doing deep dives on the Internet like I was doing.

I’m writing this in February 2025, a little over 9 months after starting my Ruza research, and a little over 7 months after the creation of my Instagram. Through my research I have met so many incredible humans, dead and alive, and I have been inspired by them. There’ve been many questions about what I want to do with my research. I still don’t know. I am doing too many things in my life right now to just focus on my research (I also need to pay bills!). I am still learning about Ruza. I’m still going through records, and letters, and finding new ones.

So now there’s this blog. I’m still building it, but I want the articles I share on Instagram to be available here too, especially for people not Instagram. A blog also allows me to write more about Ruza, and share more in-depth information.

I don’t know how I often I’ll write blog posts, but I will try to keep this site updated!

And I’ll probably write posts about my research journey too because it’s definitely not something I thought I’d do, and I’ve learned a lot, and there’ve been so many beautiful surprises.

So welcome!

And thanks for following along on this Ruza journey of mine 🙂

I’m so glad you’re here!

Valentine Smith-Vaniz | rememberingruza