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Midtown in Sacramento in Sacramento County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)
 

Lavinia Gertrude Watson

 
 
Lavinia Gertrude Watson Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, April 20, 2021
1. Lavinia Gertrude Watson Marker
Inscription. A physician practicing during California's Gold Rush who was also a spiritualist, businesswoman, and leading Sacramento suffragist. When Sacramento officials denied her the vote, she sued the city on the grounds that as a taxpaying citizen, she had the right to decide how those taxes were spent. Through her practice as a physician and midwife, Waterhouse began writing letters to the Sacramento papers arguing for voting and economic rights and composing pro-suffrage poetry for the leading feminist papers of the time while also painting pictures based on women's rights themes. Upon her death in 1890, she bequeathed all her property to the building of a retirement home for elderly women, a final act of consideration capping a life of frontier empathy and devotion.
 
Erected 2020 by Maren Conrad.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, MusicCivil RightsScience & MedicineWomen.
 
Location. 38° 34.536′ N, 121° 28.881′ W. Marker is in Sacramento, California, in Sacramento County. It is in Midtown. It can be
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reached from the intersection of K Street and 19th Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1900 K Street, Sacramento CA 95811, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Sacramento Valley and specifically in the Central Valley. It is also on the American Pacific Coast. Globally, it is in North America, on the Ring of Fire, in the Pacific Rim, in the Western Hemisphere, in the Western World, and in the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain and also Mexico’s Alta California.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Zitkαla-Šα (here, next to this marker); Marνa Amparo Ruiz de Burton (a few steps from this marker); Luella Johnston (a few steps from this marker); Alice Dunbar Nelson (a few steps from this marker); Clara Shortridge Foltz (a few steps from this marker); Jovita Idαr (a few steps from this marker); Jeannette Rankin (a few steps from this marker); Charlotte Amanda Spears Bass (a few steps from this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Sacramento.
 
More about this marker.
Lavinia Gertrude Watson Marker - wide view image. Click for full size.
Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, April 20, 2021
2. Lavinia Gertrude Watson Marker - wide view
This is one of nineteen markers that comprise the 19th Amendment Outdoor museum, erected in 2020 as part of the "I Vote" project, honoring suffragettes and their work.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on February 7, 2023. It was originally submitted on April 26, 2021, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. This page has been viewed 283 times since then and 27 times this year. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on April 26, 2021, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
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Jul. 10, 2026