Novel: The Bostonians by Henry James

Henry James’ The Bostonians was originally published as a serial in Century magazine (Vol. 30, 31, 1885-1886), starting in February 1885. Much of the magazine is digitized so the serial can be accessed in part via Google at this link for Volume 29 (search “The Bostonians” or “Henry James”) and in Volume 30. (W.D. Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham ran concurrently in the Century. Howells was not only pro-suffrage but eventually a vice president of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage of the State of New York.)

Macmillan published the novel as a book the following year and there have been numerous subsequent reprints. The Internet Archive has digitized the original, which you can read free of charge. James also wrote a version as a play.

From the cover copy and blurb of the 2003 Modern Library edition (free, via Amazon, for Kindle Unlimited subscribers):

This brilliant satire of the women’s rights movement in America is the story of the ravishing inspirational speaker Verena Tarrant and the bitter struggle between two distant cousins who seek to control her. Will the privileged Boston feminist Olive Chancellor succeed in turning her beloved ward into a celebrated activist and lifetime companion? Or will Basil Ransom, a conservative southern lawyer, steal Verena’s heart and remove her from the limelight?

From the introduction to the Modern Library edition of 2003:

The Bostonians has a vigor and blithe wit found nowhere else in James. It is about idealism in a democracy that is still recovering from a civil war bitterly fought for social ideals . . . [written] with a ferocious, precise, detailed—and wildly comic—realism.

For further reference, see also, “The Bostonians, the ‘Woman Question,’ and Henry James: A Critical Analysis of the Characterization of Basil Ransom” by Kyle Lascurettes for The St. Lawrence Review.

This page of the commercial newspaper archive Newspapers.com provides a link to many of the contemporaneous books reviews of The Bostonians. Your local or school library may have access.

Southern Myths and the Nineteenth Amendment: The Participation of Nashville Newspaper Publishers in the Final State’s Ratification

In 1920, Tennessee became the final state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which eliminated sex restriction on voting rights. This article uses the concept of myth to examine how Nashville newspapers made suffrage part of the discursive battle for regional identity. While the Nashville Banner amplified the anti-suffragists’ “Old South” propaganda of the Lost Cause and southern honor, the Nashville Tennessean grounded its coverage in the national, progressive focus in the myth of the “New South.” The publishers of both newspapers became participants in the political contest, thus taking their positions beyond the pages of their respective publications.

Open source access: Jane Marcellus, Journalism and Mass Comm Quarterly, Summer 2010

You can find out more about Marcellus’ work on her website.

Digital archives for the Nashville Tennessean are available here, via Newspapers.com. There is no known digital archive of suffrage-era issues of the Nashville Banner. The Nashville Public Library on Church Street has the fullest archive of this defunct newspaper and may be viewed in the library. Contact the library to inquire about specific requests.  DOI:10.1177/107769901008700202

Poster: The Women’s Hour Has Struck – 1916

NAWSA, gearing up again for the new campaign, was in need of a fresh slogan. ‘Woman Suffrage Is Bound to Come’ had outlived its usefulness. A twenty-five dollar prize would go to the perfect tag line. Men’s League members on George Creel’s publicity committee dominated the judging: Cosmopolitan editor Edgar Sisson; Mark Sullivan of Colliers; John Cosgrave of the New York World; Robert Hobart Davis of Munsey’s; and Frank Crowninshield of Vanity Fair, who had shared in Puck’s February 20, 1915, suffrage issue about how the antis had converted him to the prosuffrage side by omitting any reference in their arguments to how many women worked outside the home. The winning entry:

THE WOMAN’S HOUR HAS STRUCK.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IS COMING.

—Adapted from Brooke Kroeger, The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote. Excelsior Editions/SUNY Press 2017, p.189 n.p. 323  Information is from the Arkansas City Daily Traveler, 7 September 1916 p. 4, available through newspapers.com on this page.

Here is a downloadable image of the poster, which is in the public domain.

Nellie Bly with the Female Suffragists – Washington DC Convention of 1896

Bly covered the 1896 suffrage convention in Washington, D.C., and in typical fashion, had her own take on the proceedings, including enough “Fashion Don’t” critique for its to be highlighted in the subhead. Bly was a feminist and supportive of suffrage but never directly identified with the movement. She was honored, however, by being made a sentry in the 1913 Washington DC suffrage parade. Brooke Kroeger’s Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter Feminist, has numerous references to Bly, the state of the suffrage movement and her relationship to it during her active years as a newspaper writer. Bly also interviewed Susan B. Anthony at the convention and wrote about Suffrage and the Pulpit . Here, from the 1896 Washington convention, is Bly’s overall coverage:

From Kroeger, Nellie Bly Daredevil-Reporter-Feminist, pp. .281-186

And below are PDFs of all three articles in full, as archived at fultonhistory.com
and from microfilm.

See What They Say! A pre-1917 New York referendum newspaper ad

In the run-up to the November 6, 1917 suffrage referendum in New York, this ad ran in newspapers across the state, a showcase of the measure’s powerful political support from top political and governmental figures. It was only one aspect of the suffrage campaign’s multi-pronged, multi-class approach to the state’s all male voters. Note that the ad is signed by Frank Vanderlip for the Men’s Advisory Committee. Vanderlip, the president of the National City Bank (now Citibank), was a treasurer of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage and the “suffrage husband” of Narcissa Cox Vanderlip, one of the state’s most important leaders and campaigners in the last determinative decade of the suffrage movement.

The copy below is from the New York Sun, November 5, 1917, p. 2. It ran  the day before the voting, and was retrieved from the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America newspaper collection.