Women who changed history in the Hamptons! Could you imagine the Hamptons without the Montauk Lighthouse? The Shinnecock Nation? Or even the right for women to vote? I CAN'T and we have these women to thank for it...
Georgina Reid - The Coast Guard was ordered to abandon the lighthouse as erosion was taking over and the Montauk Lighthouse was close to falling into the the Atlantic Ocean. Georgina and her husband on Earth Day in 1970 came out to the Lighthouse to do plantings on the cliff bases to stop the erosion. She was recognized by President Ronald Regan for her brave efforts.
May Groot Manson - There were many Hamptons Suffragists but May might be the most well known. Manson was chairman of the Executive Committee of the Woman Suffrage League of East Hampton and the Women’s Political Union of Suffolk County. Her East Hampton home was not just a frequent meeting place for Suffragists but also the starting point for the 1913 Suffrage March.
Harriet "Princess Starleaf" Gumbs - A true leader as a tribal matriach, designated Princess, and oldest living Shinnecock Woman (1921-2020). She opened the first retail store on Hill Street in Southampton. Shinnecock Nation's first retail store on the Shinnecock Outpost. Gumbs put the Shinnecock Nation on the map LITERALLY. A well known activist, helped fight off land claims to the Shinnecock Nation's land and petitioned President Richard Nixon to put Shinnecock Nation on Federal Indigenous Maps.
