Catt Hall

Continuing on our ISU campus tour…….if you stroll northward along the tree-shaded sidewalk from Curtiss Hall, you will reach Catt Hall, named in honor of Carrie Chapman Catt, a girl from rural Iowa who attended college here in Ames, graduating in 1880.

She was the only woman in her college graduating class! I try to imagine what inspired her motivation to attend college back in that day and age. Maybe she grew up hearing her mother and/or father say things like, “Girls are just as smart as boys, Carrie”, or “A girl could go to college, Carrie”.

Carrie Chapman Catt went on to be a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and founded The League of Women Voters.

The “Plaza of Heroines” surrounds the front steps of Catt Hall.

As our tour group milled about amongst the engraved bricks, I searched for recognizable names. My son kept muttering, “C’mon, Mom, let’s keep moving.” At the last second, I spied “Ruth Suckow” and recalled that she was an author from Iowa.

In the afternoon, I returned to the Plaza of Heroines for another look around and found “Lou Henry Hoover”, who became the wife of President Herbert Hoover. When she attended Stanford University in the 1890’s, she was the school’s only female geology major. Cool!

Here’s a well-known name:

And, another:

And, the artist, P. Buckley Moss, who has included many Iowa landmarks in her unique paintings.

Well, I enjoyed learning about Carrie Chapman Catt, of whom I was plenty ignorant. Her name seemed vaguely familiar; probably she was mentioned in our Iowa History unit back in fifth grade. (How could I have forgotten?) I admire her determination and accomplishments on behalf of women’s rights, and am proud that she and her sense of fair play sprang from rural Iowa.

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