Santa Fe New Mexican Front Page Announcing 19th Amendment’s Ratification

On August 18, 1920, the front page of the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper proclaimed the ratification of the 19th Amendment, including a historical contextualization of its passage. Included in the reporting is the full text of a prepared statement by Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The Amendment had been presented to Congress in 1878, almost half a century before its ratification; Chapman Catt wrote: “Never was a measure so systematically opposed, never one whose progress was so vehemently disputed inch by inch.”

This image is in the public domain, accessible through NewseumEd.org. You can sign up for a free account to access it—and other useful suffrage resources.

The Library of Congress also has a phenomenal digitized archive of NAWSA-related primary sources, for those who are interested in learning more about the organization.

19th Century Suffrage Periodicals: Conceptions of Womanhood and the Press

In the fourth chapter of the book Ruthless Criticism: New Perspectives in U.S. Communication History, journalism scholar Linda Steiner delves into the history of 19th century women-run suffrage periodicals and how they provided an arena for collective action and the forging of new identities. Many men-run publications dismissed suffrage, or scarcely covered it, so prominent activists created their own publications.

The periodicals she covers wanted to change the image of women as meek subjects to people entitled to status and honor, which the right to vote represented.

Steiner details how suffrage periodicals were not concerned with the conventions of modern-day journalism. They were non-hierarchal, unconcerned with objectivity and did not separate their publishing and business departments.

Steiner focuses on seven different publications in her chapter: the Lily (1849-1856); the Una (1853-1855); Revolution (1868-1870); the Woman’s Journal (1870-1931); the New Northwest (1871-1887); the National Citizen and Ballot Box (1876-1881); and the Woman’s Tribune (1883-1909).

For more information on how periodicals covered suffrage, see the book Women’s Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues;  Tracy Kulba and Victoria Lamont’s article “The Periodical Press and Western Woman’s Suffrage Movements in Canada and the United States: A Comparative Study“;  the book A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910; Linda Steiner’s “Finding Community in Nineteenth Century Suffrage Periodicals“; “A New Generation,” in Women of the Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice; and Persistence; and Women and The Press: The Struggle for Equality.

Google Books has most of Steiner’s chapter for free. You can buy the book on Amazon here, or directly from the publisher here. The book is available in many libraries. Check WorldCat to see if a library near you has it.

ISBN 978-0-8166-2170-5.

Women’s Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues 

Women’s Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues is a collection of alphabetical entries written by different scholars on various women’s publications that existed in the 19th and 20th centuries. For each periodical that it covers, this book provides history and background information, circulation numbers, and a bibliography that points readers to more information about it. Periodicals in the United States shows the diversity of women’s voices on the political and social issues of the day.

The topics that the chosen periodicals covered vary, but a number of entries deal with suffrage.

Linda Steiner wrote the entry on the newspaperThe New Northwest, started by Abigail Scott Duniway, an Oregon suffragist.

Sherilyn Cox Bennion explores the publications The Pioneer and The Queen Bee, both of which were pro-suffrage publications in the western United States.

Agnes Hooper Gottilieb wrote on the National Women’s Suffrage Association-linked periodical The Revolution.

Therese L. Lueck, a co-editor of the book, authored the entry on Woman’s Journal, a publication of the American Woman Suffrage Association.

The book also covers two periodicals that opposed suffrage: Lueck wrote the entry on The Anti-Suffragist, created by the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage; and Elizabeth Burt wrote about The Remonstrance, a big voice in the anti-suffrage movement. Excerpts of book’s entry onThe Remonstrance can be found here.

For more information on how periodicals covered suffrage, see Tracy Kulba and Victoria Lamont’s article “The Periodical Press and Western Woman’s Suffrage Movements in Canada and the United States: A Comparative Study“;  the book A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910; Linda Steiner’s “Finding Community in Nineteenth Century Suffrage Periodicals“; “A New Generation,” in Women of the Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice; and Persistence; and Women and The Press: The Struggle for Equality.

You can find excerpts of Women’s Periodicals in the United States on Google Books and Questia, and you can purchase the book on Amazon.

Vanity Fair Short Film: The 1910s—Women’s Suffrage and Equal Rights

This Vanity Fair  video by director Gilly Barnes is short—at just under four minutes, it’s closer in length to a film trailer than a typical documentary—but packs in a lot of information.

Part of the “1910s” portion of Vanity Fair‘s centennial “Decades Series,” the video combines suffrage-era primary sources like photos, quotes, and newspaper clippings with dramatic reenactments of a suffragist narrator explaining how she discovered the cause.

Though perhaps too condensed to be much use to viewers already steeped in the history of the American suffrage movement’s final decade, the video is a good introduction to the topic, and places it neatly within its historical context.

This description of the “Decades Series” comes from the project’s YouTube page:

Ten decades, 10 directors. In celebration of V.F.’s 100th anniversary, 10 eclectic filmmakers—from Judd Apatow to Don Cheadle to Brett Ratner—created a film on each era of V.F.’s century-old history and the Zeitgeist that defined it.

Library of Congress National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection

This extensive digitized collection from the Library of Congress contains hundreds of suffrage-era resources related to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a prominent American suffrage organization whose founders included Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The collection consists of a wide array of media, including books, pamphlets, scrapbooks, newspapers, and posters.

The following description comes from the Library of Congress overview of the collection:

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection is a library of nearly 800 books and pamphlets documenting the suffrage campaign. They were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA and donated to the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress on November 1, 1938. The bulk of the collection is derived from the library of Carrie Chapman Catt, president of NAWSA from 1900-1904, and again from 1915-1920. Additional materials were donated to the NAWSA Collection from the libraries of other members and officers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, and Mary A. Livermore.

The complete collection consists of a variety of materials—newspapers, books, pamphlets, memorials, scrapbooks, and proceedings from the meetings of various women’s organizations—documenting the suffrage fight.

…

The materials in the collection amount to approximately 65,683 pages and can be broken down as follows:

Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37,382

Memorials . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Pamphlets . . . . . . . . . . . 4,165

Proceedings/Reports . . . 2,058

Serials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21,800

TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . 65,683

This online selection was based on a number of user groups in mind: students at both the high school and college levels interested in developing a basic understanding of the suffrage movement; teachers of courses at these levels; and advanced scholars engaged in research. In all cases, materials were selected that  best represented the NAWSA organization and its place in the woman suffrage campaign.

Users should note that the collection mirrors the biases of NAWSA’s membership. For the most part, it represents the concerns of well-educated, middle- and upper-class white women living in the North, and especially in New England. There is little in the collection to document the role of Southern women or women of color. Working-class women receive a slightly larger share of attention, but, for the most part, the collection details the experiences of the affluent white women who formed the suffrage campaign’s leadership cadre.

Click here to view other NAWSA-related resources from Women’s Suffrage and the Media.

Max Eastman: “Early History of the Men’s League” 1912

Max Eastman, the first secretary of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage of the State of New York, provided this essay to the suffrage publication the Woman Voter, with his creation story of the League. His successor, Robert Cameron Beadle, repeated much of this and added his own flavor to a subsequent article in the Trend, published in 1913.

Eastman recruited for the League for the better part of a year, seeking to assemble a membership of 100 prominent, influential men before the group went public. As it happened, they managed to amass 150 such names for the inaugural announcement.

Eastman also includes this account in his memoir, Enjoyment of Living, portions of which are available for free via Google Books. You can also purchase the memoir on Amazon.com, or use WorldCat to find it in a library near you.

You can read more about the role prominent men played in the women’s suffrage movement in Brooke Kroeger’s 2017 book, The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote.

A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910

A Voice of Their Own explores the consciousness-raising role of the American suffrage press of the latter half of the 19th century. From the first women’s rights convention, a modest gathering of 300 sympathizers led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, grew the ever-expanding movement for equal rights, greater legal protections, and improved opportunities. Although the leaders of that and subsequent conventions realized that such public rallies, with their exhortative speeches, were crucial in gaining support for the movement, they also recognized the potential impact of another medium: woman’s suffrage periodicals, written and published by and expressly for women.

The 11 essays of this volume demonstrate how the suffrage press—in such forums as Woman’s Journal, Woman’s Tribune, Woman’s Exponent, and Farmer’s Wife—was able to educate an audience of women, create a sense of community among them, and help alter their self-image.

A Voice of Their Own won the 1991 Myers Center Outstanding Book Award, sponsored by Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America.

You can purchase the book through the publisher’s website.

For more on women journalists and suffrage, see “A New Generation,” in Women of the Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice, and Persistence and Women and The Press: The Struggle for Equality.

The Difference Suffrage Has Made

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an eminent English suffragist and president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, or NUWSS, from 1897 until 1919. In her article “The Difference Suffrage Has Made,” published in the January, 1920 issue of The Englishwoman, Fawcett writes of the accomplishments of the suffrage movement in the 20th century. She describes in detail the various acts of Parliament that have contributed to improved political and legal standing for women, with a particular focus on those made between 1918 and 1919.

This excerpt can be accessed at the website of Women’s Print Media in Interwar Britain, a research project focusing on feminism and media in interwar Britain.

Elisabeth Freeman and Media Stunts for Suffrage (1911-1916)

Elisabeth Freeman was an English suffragette born in 1876. She told the story of her dedication to suffrage being piqued by this incident: “I saw a big burly policeman beating up on a woman, and I ran to help her, and we were both arrested. I found out in jail what cause we were fighting for.” This rich interactive scrapbook of Freeman’s life tells the story of her struggles as a Suffragette, Civil Rights Worker, and Militant Pacifist.

Of particular relevance to those interested in suffrage and the media is the section on Freeman’s media stunts for suffrage. Freeman, adept at using the media to her advantage, became known for “finding some activity that would capture media attention and guarantee press.” She was often personally involved in protests and even got arrested a number of times. She also used other newsworthy events to “piggy back” onto another story, for instance, speaking between rounds of prize fights.

Some highlights from this fascinating repository of “stunts” include Freeman pictured with a bear and Freeman arrested at a strike.  

Letter to the Editor from Melinda Hall Gardner: The Suffrage Pickets

Matilda Hall Gardner was a suffragist who was a member of the national executive committee of the militant National Women’s Party, the pro-suffrage group founded by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

In a June 4, 1917 letter to the New York Evening Post, Gardner takes on the objections to suffrage voiced by members of Congress and the Post‘s Washington correspondent.

Gardner wrote that congressional opponents to suffrage had objected to every type of tactic activists used, from parades to letters to the editor. She further noted that there was now a new type of World War I-related objection appearing, both from pro-war figures and those opposed to the conflict. Pro-war figures, in her telling, said that women’s “‘hysterical'” objections to war showed they were not fit to weigh in on the “‘great questions'” of the day. Anti-war figures, meanwhile, argued that some women’s demands for war proved that women should not participate in public life.

Lastly, she noted that David Lawrence, the Washington-based reporter for the Post, wrote in a dispatch that women should wait on men to grant them voting rights after the war. Her rejoinder reads, in part: “Can Mr. Lawrence or any other man cite any right which ever was achieved by men or women as a result of ceasing their demands and relying on the gratitude of their superiors in power?”

You can access the letter here at the Fulton History newspaper database, or read it by downloading the image below or opening the link for the original, digitized version from Fulton History.