The 13 National Parks Devoted to Women’s History

The number of national park sites devoted to women’s history has risen in recent years but is still small. The lives these 13 places honor, however, are groundbreaking and inspirational — from American Red Cross-founder Clara Barton, whose home in 1974 became the first site dedicated to a woman, to former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, whose home became part of the National Park System in late 2024.

We present the sites in alphabetical order:

Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, Washington, D.C.

This monument contains the most complete collection of women’s suffrage and equal rights movement documents and artifacts in the United States. It bears the names of activists Alice Paul, who founded the National Woman’s Party in 1916 to further the cause of full equality for women, and Alva Belmont, who served as the party’s president from 1920-1933. Housed in Paul’s brick home on Capitol Hill, the monument is among the oldest structures in D.C. It served as the epicenter for the National Woman’s Party, women’s rights, feminist education and social change throughout the 20th century.

The site was established in 2016. Great American Outdoors Act-funded renovations earlier this decade included a new roof, updated HVAC system and rehabilitated windows and doors.

Clara Barton National Historic Site, Maryland

Clara Barton is best known as the founder of the American Red Cross, but this pioneering humanitarian also distinguished herself as a dedicated Civil War nurse, an educator and a government clerk. Barton was one of the first women in the federal workforce, serving at the U.S. Patent Office, where she insisted on pay equal to her male colleagues. After the Civil War, she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers, helping to reunite wounded soldiers with loved ones and properly identify and bury the remains of thousands of men who died in battle.

Through Great American Outdoors Act funding, the National Park Service is rehabilitating Barton’s 1891 home in Glen Echo, Maryland. The house served as the first headquarters of the American Red Cross.

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, New York

America’s longest-serving first lady distinguished herself during her husband’s presidency as a newspaper columnist and an outspoken proponent of human rights. In the years following her husband’s death, Eleanor Roosevelt served as American ambassador to the United Nations and chair of its Human Rights Commission, helping to write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Val-Kill served as the couple’s country retreat, where they entertained friends, the news media, activists and official state visitors. Roosevelt moved there permanently after President Roosevelt died. Saved from development, the property was added to the National Park System in 1977. Visitors can explore exhibits at the nation’s first presidential library, as well as gardens, trails and other recreational features.

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, Chicago, Illinois and Money, Mississippi

Mamie Till-Mobley insisted on an open-casket funeral after her 14-year-old son, Emmett, traveled from Chicago to Money, Mississippi, to visit relatives in 1955 — only to be kidnapped, tortured and murdered after reportedly whistling at a white woman. She bravely decided to “let the world see” her son’s maimed body as the result of the racial violence, and in so doing, set the Civil Rights Movement into motion.

This two-state site was established in 2023. In Mississippi, visitors can explore the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, where two men were tried and acquitted of lynching Till; the Emmett Till Interpretive Center; and Graball Landing where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. In Chicago’s South Side, visitors can see Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Till’s funeral took place.

First Ladies National Historic Site, Ohio

Though numerous national park sites honor presidents, none explored the lives of their influential wives until Mary Regula, wife of a former Ohio congressman, helped establish a bibliography on these leaders. Her efforts led to a national library and eventually a historic site, which archives a wealth of information on the women who served in this rare and distinctive role in American politics and society.

Established in 2000, the site helps visitors learn more about the lives and legacies of these presidential wives, such as Dolley Madison, who saved a famous George Washington portrait from a White House fire; Lou Hoover, the earliest first lady to speak on the radio; and Rosalynn Carter, who testified before Congress in support of mental health reform.

Frances Perkins National Monument, Maine

This national monument honoring President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor became the 433rd national park site in December 2024. The country’s first female cabinet secretary, Frances Perkins fought for working people and served as a driving force behind the New Deal, helping to lift Americans out of poverty during the Great Depression. She established many workplace benefits and safeguards we take for granted, including Social Security, unemployment compensation, a minimum wage and a 40-hour work week. She also banned child labor.

Her 57-acre homestead includes the family home, farm buildings and gardens. Perkins’ brick house is undergoing restorations and is expected to open to the public this summer. Until then, visitors can still walk the grounds.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, Maryland

After escaping from brutal slave owners in 1849 at age 27, Harriet Tubman risked her life multiple times by returning to rescue family members and others via the Underground Railroad until the Civil War erupted in 1861. During the war, Tubman served as a Union nurse, scout and spy, even helping to conduct an assault on Confederate plantations in 1863 that freed even more enslaved Americans.

This site, established in 2013, is located along Maryland’s Eastern Shore where Tubman lived as an enslaved child, young woman and freedom seeker. Its new visitor center serves as an orientation center and gateway to the larger Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway.

Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, New York

Described by the Park Service as the Underground Railroad’s best-known conductor, Harriet Tubman moved her family from Ontario, Canada to Central New York in 1859 — an area of progressive thought, abolition and women’s suffrage. She continued to fight for human rights and dignity until she died in 1913.

This 32-acre park site in Auburn, New York, was established in 2017 and includes Tubman’s brick home, the historic Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which she attended, and other properties. Tubman helped raise funds to build the church, and her funeral was held there. Substantial restoration to the church and its adjacent parsonage were completed in June 2024.

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Virginia

Maggie Lena Walker was a prominent businesswoman and community leader in post-Civil War Richmond, Virginia. The daughter of a former slave, she was the first African American woman in the United States to found a bank, where she served as president. She also devoted much of her life to a beneficial society that promoted humanitarian causes and helped the sick.

Established in 1978, the site features her home in the heart of Jackson Ward, the center of Richmond’s African American business and social life at the turn of the century. In July 2024, the Park Service and community partners sponsored two weeks of tours, exhibitions and special events to celebrate Walker’s 160th birthday and her legacy.

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, D.C.

Mary McLeod Bethune rose from a childhood of poverty and hard work to become the only child in her family to receive an education. She went on to start a school for African American girls, serve as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and found her own influential civil rights organization, the National Council of Negro Women.

This historic site is Bethune’s last home in D.C., which served as the council’s first headquarters. Here, the council spearheaded strategies and developed programs that advanced the interests of African American women. It became part of the National Park System in 1994.

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, Jackson, Mississippi

Medgar and Myrlie Evers were partners in the civil rights struggle. The assassination of Medgar Evers in the carport of their home on June 12, 1963, was the first murder of a nationally significant leader of the Civil Rights Movement, and it became a catalyst for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Myrlie Evers-Williams has continued to promote issues of racial equality and social justice for decades.

Their house and spacious yard, located in the Elraine subdivision — Mississippi’s first complete neighborhood built by and for the middle-class African American community — stands as a memorial to the couple’s civil rights work, pride in their home, commitment to resisting oppression, and investment in their community.

Rosie the Riveter-World War II Home Front National Historical Park, California

This park, established in 2000, boasts an impressive memorial to the estimated 18 million women who joined defense and support industries during World War II. It includes photos and quotes from real-life “Rosies,” and a walkway that features a timeline of events from the war’s home front.

The site’s locale, Richmond, California, also retains many of the sites and structures significant to the war industries of the time. The city grew from fewer than 24,000 people in 1940 to nearly 100,000 by 1943, as people worked in the country’s most productive shipyard complex and largest concentration of war-related factories in a city its size. The park celebrates its 25th anniversary this year with special events.

Women’s Rights National Historical Park, New York

The first women’s rights convention took place at this site in Seneca Falls in 1848. This landmark event was not the first time women had organized and fought for equal treatment, but it laid the groundwork for a larger movement for social change by developing a clear set of goals for women, including the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to equal education, and other essential rights and opportunities. The park was established in 1980.

In late 2024, exterior rehabilitation and restoration work through Great American Outdoors Act funding began at the park’s historic M’Clintock House, one of several homes and structures that make up the park. This is where Mary Ann M'Clintock, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that proclaimed that “all men and women are created equal.”

More to learn elsewhere

Other sites were not designated specifically to commemorate women’s achievements, but, as with many sites, women play a particularly large role in their history.

Two sites tell significant stories about women in the workforce: Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts shares the story of the “Mill Girls” who worked textile looms in the early 1800s, and the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park interprets the history of the “Calutron Girls” who unknowingly helped enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The lives of Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks and poet Alice Dunbar can be explored at Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, respectively, just to name a few.

Of course, there are numerous other examples of how women transformed the country. Florida’s Everglades would be a very different place today, for example, if Marjory Stoneman Douglas had not devoted herself tirelessly to preserving it, as would Indiana Dunes National Park along Lake Michigan without Alice Gray, known as “Diana of the Dunes.” Without Helen Fowler Shaw, there would be no Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, a quiet oasis in Washington, D.C.