Women's History in America: Where Women Made History | National Trust for Historic Preservation

A third grader visiting the D'Amico Institute of Art is sitting at a table with a white tablecloth that holds various natural objects and a photo of a bird. The image is taken from above so only the top of the student's head is seen. — Where Women Made History

Every place has a woman's story to tell.

The history of women’s achievements is everywhere, and you cannot tell the history of the United States without it. Yet, only 5 percent of National Historic Landmarks are designated for their connections to women, and representation on the National Register of Historic Places is largely unknown because women’s history was intentionally excluded as a category.

The result is a significant gap: the places where women have shaped history are too often unrecognized, underfunded, and hard to find. For women from communities whose stories have long been left out of the official record, that gap runs especially deep.

Through our Where Women Made History (WWMH) initiative, the National Trust protects and celebrates the places where women left their mark, and seeks to inspire the preservation field to more fully reflect the richness and breadth of American history by increasing the representation of these important stories across all aspects of our work.

Here’s how we are doing that:

The Los Angeles Women's Landmarks Project

Launched in early 2025 in partnership with the Los Angeles Conservancy, this ambitious, multi-year effort is addressing the inherent biases that have historically skewed the landmark designation process.

This project is developing and testing an array of new tools and resources for communities across the country, empowering them to adopt a radically different approach to the way we designate and recognize places connected to women and other historically excluded communities.

The project involves the L.A. Office of Historic Resources, the University of Southern California Heritage Conservation program, UCLA’s History-Geography Project, the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation, and many others as partners.

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An adult and two small children looking at a painting of a landscape while looking at the real thing. The adult is leaning down towards the children pointing something out while the kids are facing forward.

Georgia O'Keefe Museum

Dorothy C. Radgowski Learning Through Women’s Achievement in the Arts Grant Program

A collaboration with the Historic Artist’ Homes and Studios program, this grant program funds the creation of new educational programming for K-5 students at HAHS sites to ensure women’s history is an integral part of the story at historic sites and museums. Explore lessons from these programs and visit Teaching Students with Women’s History to get access to the projects, lesson plans, and impacts of these grants, and consider how they can be applied at other historic places.

A small group of people arrayed in a circle listening to a woman gesturing as she speeks. In the background is the back of a brick multistory building with an expanse of grass.

Chris Morris/National Trust for Historic Preservaton

RAMSA Design Partnership

A partnership between WWMH and design firm RAMSA (Robert A. M. Stern Architects) provides pro bono design, planning, and technical services to historic sites that have deep connections to women’s achievement. RAMSA and WWMH have worked closely with owners, staff, alumni, artists, and others at Stone Quarry Art Park and Palmer Memorial Institute, to help them envision a new future for these important places of women’s history. The partnership is set to expand in 2026 to bring this critical assistance to other sites of women’s history.

Interior of Clara Barton House looking northeast along the second floor stair hall. The image is in black and white.

Historic American Buildings Survey

Protecting Women’s History in Our National Parks

Since 2022 WWMH has joined the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Maryland Red Cross to fight for the protection of the Clara Barton National Historic Site, the home of the American Red Cross and one of only a few of the 433 National Park units dedicated in recognition of women’s contributions to our national story.

As a result of our collective efforts, the Barton NHS finally will be fully restored and reactivated, and a new non-profit Friends group has formed to raise funds for interpretation and programming that will share Barton’s inspiring legacy with the public.

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A black and white image of a group of women in a car with the words at the back that says 'under construction travel at your own...'

John Butte

The Women of Route 66

The National Trust’s Preserve Route 66 initiative and WWMH supported the creation of a documentary, Route 66: The Untold Stories of the Women of the Mother Road, a companion set of digital lesson plans, and a Girl Scout patch and activities featuring over a century of diverse women’s experiences living, working, driving, celebrating, and fighting for freedom and equality along Route 66.

Harlin Miller Photography

Benjamin Moore Partnership

In honor of the centennial of passage of the 19th amendment in 2019, the National Trust partnered with Benjamin Moore to highlight and preserve several sites in the United States where women made history. Watch the videos for Azurest South, Tate, Etienne, and Prevost Center, The Women’s Building,and the Odd Fellows Building.