Biography: Yuki Goto moved from Japan to Laramie, Wyoming in 2024. I work primarily as a web developer and designer, and I am currently taking ESL classes at LLLC to improve my English skills. From a Japanese perspective, Wyoming is not very well known and is often considered a minor state. However, since coming here, I have truly enjoyed learning not only about American history, but also about the unique and meaningful history of Wyoming. Photo location: In front of the Cheyenne Depot Museum
About the Photo: This photo captures a statue gifted to the citizens of Cheyenne to commemorate Wyoming as the first state to grant women the right to vote. Rather than viewing the statue from the front, I took the photo from the statue’s eye level. From this perspective, the Wyoming State Capitol comes into view. Although the statue honors women’s suffrage, the title, A New Beginning, stood out to me. When I saw the title and imagined the view from the woman’s eyes, I felt that granting voting rights represented a new future filled with hope and opportunity for everyone. For me, moving from Japan to Wyoming also represents a personal new beginning. I wondered what this woman might have been looking toward. Hope, responsibility, or a bright future. As I took this photo, I felt a strong connection to that idea and hoped to walk forward into my own new beginning, just as she seemed to be doing.
History: In 1869, Wyoming's territorial legislature passed a bill approving women's suffrage, making the women in Wyoming the first in the United States to have the right to vote. Although debates continue over who should receive the credit. Gov. John Campbell signed the bill into law on Dec. 10. The following year, in March, women first served on juries in Laramie, and on Sept. 6, 1870, also in Laramie, Louisa Swain became the first Wyoming woman to cast a ballot under the world's first law granting women equal and unrestricted voting rights with men.
More Information: https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/list-firsts-wyoming-women
