WIBW 13 News | Feature Story | Grant Stephens | 6/17/19

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - An award-winning artist traveling the country stopped in the capital city at the Shawnee County Public Library Monday afternoon.

Oklahoma artist Marilyn Artus is just days into her 14-month journey around the states.

She's traveling to each of the 36 states that ratified the 19th amendment.

Kansas was the first state to referendum on women’s suffrage in 1867.

It didn't pass then, but after years of other states making the decision - Kansas recognized the right of women to vote in 1912 - eight years before the 19th amendment was ratified nationally.

In honor of the centennial of the 19th amendment's ratification - Artus is sewing together a symbolic flag.

"I'm a bit of a suffrage-era nerd I'm a big fan of that time period," she said.

"I'm gonna work with a woman artist in each state and we're gonna build a flag that's 18 feet by 26 feet, it's really big."