LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College history professor Amy Canfield has been appointed as the state coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail (NVWT), officials from The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites have announced.
The NVWT’s mission is to recognize and celebrate the enormous diversity of people and groups active in the struggle for women’s suffrage in the United States. To do this, it uses a Trail, which consists of two parts: (1) a database with a digital map of the U.S. and (2) working with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation to put up 250 historic roadside markers nationally. Currently, there are more than 1,000 sites on the Trail that tell the untold stories of suffrage for all women that extends beyond the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920.
The organization has 44 state coordinators. Canfield will be working with historians and volunteers throughout Idaho to document specific suffrage sites and establish historic markers at those sites. Currently, the Trail’s digital map does not contain a site in Idaho. Canfield will also have a student research assistant, Meghan Castle, help her. Castle is a junior at LC State majoring in history with a minor in women’s and general studies.
Canfield has worked at LC State since the fall of 2008. Her courses on U.S. history focus on women’s history, American Indian history, and public history. She is the advisor to the Women In Lasting Leadership Club, and organizer of Women’s History Month activities on campus.
Canfield encourages her students to be active in civic engagement and to get involved with issues they are passionate about. During the past four years, Canfield has facilitated or held re-enactments of historical significance on civil and women’s rights on the LC State campus. The topics were researched and developed by her students.
Canfield is involved with many community organizations, serving on the board of directors of local non-profit organizations and state board and councils, including the Lewiston Civic Theater and Idaho Humanities Council. She is also a member of the Idaho Historic Sites Review Board.
Canfield holds a bachelor’s degree in history and women’s studies from Idaho State University and a master’s in U.S. history and a Ph.D. in U.S. and public history, both from Washington State University.
In 2019, Canfield was honored with the Idaho Brightest Stars Award for a Teacher/Professor in the state. The award honors those who actively volunteer in their communities. She also was a 2019 recipient of the LC State Women’s Leadership Award.