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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Women’s Museum Plan ‘Not The First’

Associated Press

Announcement of the “first national” women’s museum this week has some other women saying not so fast.

Touting it as the first of its kind, organizers and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled plans to open The Women’s Museum in Dallas in October 2000. Clinton called the museum a “historic opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements.”

But the National Women’s Hall of Fame said the concept isn’t so new.

“While we are delighted that a museum is being built to honor women, it must be pointed out that they are not the first,” said Sarah Suggs, national executive director of the hall of fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

The hall of fame was founded in 1969.

Organizers of the Dallas museum said they have been to the hall of fame and see the two as having different goals.

“They are a national women’s hall of fame; they are not a national women’s museum in the broad sense of what a museum does,” said Candice O’Keefe, executive director of the Foundation for Women’s Resources. “It was never our intent to denigrate the work they’ve done, but we see our museum as a complementary but different project.”