Foster to portray history during Festival Days

Hill County residents will get a chance to learn about a turn-of-the-20th century prominent Montana journalist and suffragist at an event hosted by the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum.

Judy Dritshulas, chair of the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum board, said during a meeting of the museum board Monday that Anne Foster's presentation during Havre Festival Days will be the third and final installment of a summer lecture series hosted by the museum.

"Alcohol, Corsettes and the Vote: A Conversation with Mary Long Alderson" is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in the Montana Room of Havre Inn and Suites.

Foster, a historian and speaker, will appear in the character of Mary Long Anderson, a turn of the 20th century Montana woman suffragette who had been a leading figure in the Montana Woman Suffrage Association as well as a president of the Montana Christian Temperance Union.

"Drawing from her own editorials and writings, Mary will explain the benefits of votes for women as well as the evils of drink and tight lace," a press release about the presentation says.

The event is part of the Montana Conversations program, which is funded through donations from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Montana's Cultural Preservation Trust and private donors, a press release from the museum says.

Dritshulas said the museum hosted two other speakers,: Mary Bradbury, who portrayed Nancy Russell, the wife of Montana painter Charles Russell at a July 21 event; and Joan Bird, author of "Montana UFOs And Extraterrestrials."

Friday's event is free and open to the public and will include light refreshments.