Julia Archibald Holmes
1838–1887
Suffragist who climbed a mountain to prove women's limits were invented, not natural.
TBD
In 1858, she climbed Pikes Peak in bloomers - a controversial, scandalous choice of dress to prove a point - that a woman's body and mind could do anything a man's could. At the summit, she sat down and read Emerson aloud, because the climb was never just about the climbing. The marriage that brought her west did not last. By her thirties, she was on her own, raising her children and starting over in Washington, D.C. There, decades before women had the right to vote, she walked up and tried to register anyway - daring the country to say no to her face, the way it had said no to the mountain. She spent her whole life proving the same point, over and over, in different rooms - that no was never the end of the conversation.
Learn more
https://www.nps.gov/people/julia-archibald-holmes.htm
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/186860.Stewart_M_Green/blog?page=6
You can also find more on her at the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum
The Artist
Sarah Bedell is an artist who enjoys leveraging her range of creative skills to support engaging collaborative projects. She graduated from Colorado College in 2024 with a major in Museum Studies and a minor in Performance Design. Upon graduation, she was accepted into CC’s Public Interest Fellowship Program which supports the next generation of nonprofit leaders. Through the PIFP program she began her work with Concrete Couch where she still serves as Project and Event Manager helping to build community through creative projects. In her personal art practice, Sarah works in acrylic, mixed media, and digital art to process and expand personal experiences in collage style compositions. Sarah is currently based in Manitou Springs where you may catch her exploring the local arts scene, mentoring youth, lugging boxes of tiles, and spending time in nature.
