Bacon Free Library and the Natick Historical Society are co-sponsoring an online lecture on the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment delivered by Barbara Berenson, J.D. The Zoom event, set for Sept. 22 from 7-8:30pm, is free and open to the public.

The link to the virtual lecture is available upon registration. Register by emailing events@natickhistoricalsociety.org

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, protecting the right to vote from discrimination on the basis of sex. The success of the women’s suffrage movement inspired greater calls for equality and evolved into the campaign for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. First introduced to Congress in 1923, the amendment passed the House and Senate in 1972 but has yet to be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. Campaigns for the passage of the ERA continue today.

Barbara Berenson is the author of Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers (2018), Boston in the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution (2014), and Walking Tours of Civil War Boston: Hub of Abolitionism (2011, 2d ed. 2014). She is currently a lecturer at Harvard Law School and teaches a course on women’s suffrage at Tufts University.

Bacon Free Library begins offering curbside pickup on Tuesday, May 26.

Here’s how it works:

Check the materials catalog online to see if an item is available (don’t place a hold).
Call 508-653-6730 or email bflpickups@gmail.com Monday-Friday 10am-4pm. to confirm a pickup.
Swing by the front of the library and park. Call the number above and a staff member will bring your item or items to the table near the book drop. Once the staff member moves away, you can grab your item or items.

Separately, the Morse Institute Library has been offering contactless hold pickup since mid-May.

Here’s how it works:

Put items on hold using your Minuteman account
Wait for an email, text, or phone call that your items are ready to be picked up.
Book a pickup appointment window using our online pickup calendar or give a call at 508-907-4384.
Come to the main entrance of the library during your appointment window and grab your items off the contactless pickup shelf. Items will be checked out and bagged with your name on it.

Online lecture about suffrage from Bacon Free Library, Natick Historical Society

Both Natick libraries now offering pickups