FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 25, 2004) – On Saturday, March 27, 2004, the first in a series of marker dedications to honor Kentucky women will take place in Lincoln County.  In observance of Women’s History Month, sixteen new highway markers will be unveiled in the future.
 
The Kentucky Women’s History Highway Marker initiative is a joint effort between the Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky Commission on Women, Kentucky Department of Transportation and the League of Women Voters in Kentucky.  In partnership, these organizations selected fifteen of the most compelling stories of women in Kentucky’s history.  After researching the women’s history, a brief summary of their contributions will be created and engraved into a highway marker that will be placed in an appropriate location noting each woman’s significance.

“I’m very pleased to see we have taken the opportunity to document these women’s roles in Kentucky’s history,” commented Kent Whitworth, director of the Kentucky Historical Society, “and to share it with our local communities.  Each woman played a vital part in moving her community forward.  We’re proud to be a part of such an exciting project.”

The first of the new markers to be dedicated on March 27 will honor Sophia Alcorn for her innovative teaching contributions.  Located at the Alcorn Homestead in Lincoln County, this marker will note Alcorn’s pioneering work with deaf-blind students.  Alcorn invented the Tadoma method, named for two of her deaf-blind students, Tad Chapman and Oma Simpson. This system, still used internationally, teaches the deaf-blind to speak through the feel of sound vibrations from the lips and cheeks. She also created the Alcorn symbols, written characters used to help deaf students develop their speech. 

Those women to be commemorated include:
Boyd County – Mary Elliott Flanery
McCracken County – Ann I. Baker
Jefferson County – Murray Atkins Walls, Jennie C. Benedict, Rebecca Rosenthal Judah, Patty Smith Hill, Susan B. Anthony, Ann Carrie Chapman, Enid Yandell
Mason County – Rosemary Clooney
Franklin County – Emma Guy Cromwell
Bourbon County – Mae Street Kidd
Warren County – Ora Porter
Bullitt County – Alma Wallace Lesch
Hart and Shelby County – Thelma Stovall

To learn more about the Kentucky Historical Society’s Highway Markers program, you may call (502) 564-1792 or visit the Web at http://history.ky.gov.

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The Kentucky Historical Society, since 1836, has provided connections to the past, perspective on the present and inspiration for the future.  KHS operates the Old State Capitol, Kentucky Military History Museum and its five-year-old headquarters, the Kentucky History Center.   Since 1999, the $30 million  History Center has welcomed almost one million visitors.   For more information about the Kentucky Historical Society and its programs, visit the Web at http://history.ky.gov or call (502) 564-1792.