When Women Lost the Vote: Museum of the American Revolution installs new exhibit

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia is installing a new historical scene that has as much relevance today as it did in 1801, the time the tableau depicts.

The lifelike figures of women, including a woman of color, were removed from their protective crates and installed in their new exhibit.

The tableau depicts the women voting in New Jersey in 1801 when voting was legal for women and free Black people.

They were legally entitled to vote from 1776 to 1807 when their right to vote was lost in a bitter partisan dispute in the state legislature.

The scene encourages visitors to consider the complexity of New Jersey laws which allowed women to vote but also defined enslaved women as property.

"As we think about what's happening in the world today, I think it's incumbent upon us to really consider what does it mean to have the right to vote and if we believe the right to vote is a fundamental American value then how is that we're all working to protect that," said Adrienne Whaley, the museum's director of education and community engagement.

The exhibit titled "When Women Lost the Vote" features the forgotten stories of the women and free people of color who first pioneered the vote.

The exhibit is on view through April 25.