Paper fans were a popular method of advertising in the early 20th century. This one was issued by the Woman Suffrage Party of New York. The illustration is by Emily Chamberlain. The reverse of the fan reads, "Keep Cool/and Raise/A Breeze for Suffrage!/Votes for Women/Votes for Women."
This fan was made to support the unsuccessful 1915 Empire State Campaign for a referendum to add a suffrage amendment to the New York State constitution.
This postcard promoting woman suffrage shows an American flag with four stars representing the four states which had full suffrage at the time of its printing: Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Utah (1896) and Idaho (1896).
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated
ID Number
1979.0939.67
accession number
1979.0939
catalog number
1979.0939.67
Description
Women’s need of the vote to better look after their children and their world is invoked by many suffrage postcards. They recalled the Progressive Era’s belief in “social housekeeping.” The logical extension of women’s ability to clean and order their homes was to apply those skills to clean and remedy the ills of society.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated
ID Number
1979.0939.59
accession number
1979.0939
catalog number
1979.0939.59
Description
Women countered the argument that they were too pure for the dirty business of politics by invoking the Progressive Era’s belief in “social housekeeping.” The logical extension of women’s ability to clean and order their homes was to apply those skills to clean and remedy the ills of society. Some postcards used images of children to project a nonthreatening image of women voters.
The postcard was part of a 1911 campaign for suffrage in California, which by a state-wide referendum in that year became the sixth state to approve woman’s suffrage.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated
ID Number
1979.0939.24
accession number
1979.0939
catalog number
1979.0939.24
Description
The postcard’s map illustrates the types of local, state, and national suffrage available to women at the time it was printed.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated
ID Number
1979.0939.70
accession number
1979.0939
catalog number
1979.0939.70
Description
A popular anti-suffrage argument claimed that entering the supposedly masculine world of politics would take away from women’s femininity. This postcard directly refutes that argument by giving examples of other tasks women commonly performed that, while by no means feminine, were not considered to take away from their “womanliness” in the same way that voting would not change a woman’s fundamental character.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
This ribbon was worn by a member of the Brooklyn Woman Suffrage Association.
The ribbon honors Susan B. Anthony. The date, 1869, refers to the year in which Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. The quote “Failure is Impossible” is from Anthony’s last public speech, delivered in 1906. In that speech Anthony proclaimed that she knew the struggle for women’s suffrage would end in victory because so many outstanding women had given the bulk of their lives to the cause. Anthony died shortly after giving the speech, and “Failure is Impossible” became a rallying cry for suffragists across the nation in her honor and memory.
Paper fans were a popular method of advertising in the early 20th century. This one was issued by the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association to support a 1915 state referendum to give Massachusetts women the vote. The map highlights the states in which women already had the vote - Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona, Montana, and Nevada. The reverse of the fan reads, “Keep Cool!/There will be nothing/to worry about after we get/VOTES FOR WOMEN/Election Day November 2.” The Massachusetts referendum failed. Massachusetts women did not gain the vote in until the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated
ID Number
1979.0939.16
accession number
1979.0939
catalog number
1979.0939.16
Description
“Votes for Women,” was one of the most popular and recognizable slogans used by members of the woman’s suffrage movement.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote. Cards like this one emphasized the femininity of suffragists.
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated
ID Number
1979.0939.28
accession number
1979.0939
catalog number
1979.0939.28
Description
Some postcards used images of children to project a nonthreatening image of women voters.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
This tin blue bird sign was issued by the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association to support a 1915 state referendum to give Massachusetts women the vote. On July 19, 1915, “Suffrage Blue Bird Day,” approximately 100,000 blue birds were pinned up around the state. The Massachusetts referendum failed. Massachusetts women did not gain the vote in until the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.
Ribbon worn by a delegate to a suffrage convention held in Geneva, New York in November 1897.
After the first Woman’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848, suffrage groups began holding state and national conventions to strategize for woman suffrage.
Badge worn by a delegate to a suffrage convention held in Hudson, New York in November, 1898
After the first Woman’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848, suffrage groups began holding state and national conventions to strategize for woman suffrage.
This ribbon is from a suffrage convention held in Dunkirk, New York in November, 1899.
After the first Woman’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848, suffrage groups began holding state and national conventions to strategize for woman suffrage.
This is the flag of the National Woman’s Suffrage Congressional Union.
In 1914 Alice Paul split from the more conservative National American Woman Suffrage Association, eventually founding the National Woman’s Party. It replaced British suffragettes’ green with yellow as the new American suffrage color.
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns felt that more should be being done to lobby Congress directly and that American suffragists could adapt the tactics of spectacle and political pressure employed by the British "suffragettes." Their new National Woman’s Party (NWP) used parades, petitions, protests, and eventually pickets in an ambitious campaign for a woman suffrage amendment.
The stars on this handmade flag represent the four states in which women could vote by 1900: Wyoming (1890), Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), and Idaho (1896). Suffrage groups often produced flags, postcards and buttons with the number of stars corresponding to the states in which women had the vote as a way to keep track of progress towards and make the public aware of the status of women’s suffrage.
This postcard appeals directly to men’s sense of patriotism and paternal duty to support woman suffrage.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
This postcard features the slogan “Votes for Women,” one of the most popular and recognizable slogans used by members of the woman’s suffrage movement.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
Suffragist used holidays like Valentine’s Day to promote the cause of “Votes for Women.”
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.
Invoking the American Revolution through the slogan, “No Taxation without Representation,” the postcard argues that America is now doing the same thing that it rebelled against by denying representation through voting to tax-paying women.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association began a postcard campaign in 1910, partly to raise awareness of the cause and partly as a fundraiser. The cards could be funny, serious, or sentimental. Some employed powerful patriotic symbols and logical arguments to make their case for woman’s right to vote.