The Alert Collector
Aimee Graham, Editor
Women's Suffrage Movement
Patricia F. Dolton completed her MSIS at the University at Albany, SUNY in Albany, NY in May 2013 and has a Bachelor's in History from SUNY at New Paltz in New Paltz, NY. She is a librarian at the Rensselaer Public Library and is the appointed municipal historian for Greenwich, NY.
Correspondence concerning this column should be addressed to Aimee Graham; email: aimee.graham90@gmail.com.
The trials during the Women's Suffrage Movement that rocked the beginning of the United States is reaching their one-hundredth anniversary, making this an imperative time to begin, add, or renew any collection. As this is a world-wide and continuous struggle, a collection such as this will continuously need to be upgraded as seen fit, but here are some amazing resources to begin any collection.—Editor
While the word suffrage, derived from the Latin "suffragium," simply refers to the right to vote, the modern connotation specifically calls to mind the women's suffrage movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Part of the larger social movement of Women's Rights and the fight for equality within patriarchal societies, the Women's Suffrage Movement in the United States spans a seventy-two year period that mirrored similar struggles throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. After World War I more countries throughout the world, including those in South and Central America, Africa, and Asia, began including women in the electoral process. An important note is that not all countries have elections due to their national form of government.
A focus on the United States and the United Kingdom is straightforward due to the sheer amount of scholarship; however, one must not ignore the histories of other countries and their own struggles with equality for women through the right to vote. Essay collections are one way to fill voids in this area, though there are still gaps, particularly in the study of the enfranchisement of African and South American women.
Because the Women's Suffrage Movement was a social, grass-roots movement, the arts play a significant role—it is important to choose materials that reflect not just the political aspects of the movement, but also to touch on the music, plays, literature, and visual imagery of the movement.
One can find a multitude of information online. More libraries and archives are participating in digitization projects to increase the accessibility and visibility of their collections. Included here are a number of suffrage-movement-related collections available either entirely online or through digitized finding aids to assist in identifying documents and records for research. More digitization projects will undoubtedly occur in the years leading up to the suffrage centennial celebrations in various countries as more scholars begin looking back on one hundred years of women voting.
Nonfiction Books
Paxton, Pamela Marie and Melanie M. Hughes. Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014 (ISBN: 978141299866).
Section two discusses the enfranchisement of women internationally and in the United States, giving an overview of the history of the suffrage movement. Also included is suffrage passed in countries after World War II, which will help fill the void in collections regarding female voting in non-Western countries and South America. Other political and economic issues discussed in this volume will be of interest to women's studies programs.
United States
Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of American Suffragists. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005 (ISBN: 9780809095285).
This biography introduces five of the women's rights movement's most formidable leaders: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, and Alice Paul. By illustrating the private lives of these women, we are better able to understand their personal motivations behind their activism.
DuBois, Ellen Carol. Harriet Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997 (ISBN: 9780300065626).
Harriet Stanton Blatch, daughter of famed suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a key figure in the suffrage movement, particularly after her mother's death. This biography places Blatch in the forefront of New York State's fight for enfranchisement in 1916–17, and illustrates her devotion to feminism after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Dudden, Faye E. Fighting Chance: The Struggle Over Women Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 (ISBN: 9780199772636).
When the 15th Amendment added the word "male" to the United States Constitution suffragists were outraged, especially Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her rhetoric became increasingly anti-black, alienating suffragists like Frederick Douglass. This would lead to a split in the suffrage movement that would last more than two decades.
Faulkner, Carol. Lucretia Mott's Heresy: Abolition and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011 (ISBN: 9780812243215).
Ardent abolitionist and Quaker Lucretia Mott believed that racial equality and women's rights were part of a larger entity of human liberty. Mott was one of the notable suffragists to collaborate with white and black activists. This biography also covers the schism of the Quaker religion.
Friedl, Bettina, ed. On To Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman Suffrage Movement. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1987 (ISBN: 1555530184).
This volume includes twenty plays representing both the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements. Some pro-suffrage plays were meant to be read instead of acted.
Gabriel, Mary. Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1998 (ISBN: 9781565121324).
This biography of suffragist, free-love advocate, and the first female presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull gives a no holds barred look into the life of this most controversial of nineteenth-century women's rights advocates.
Giddings, Paula. Ida: A Swords Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching. New York: Amistad, 2008 (ISBN: 9780060519216).
Though most of the monograph focuses on Wells' campaign against lynching, and civil rights issues, there is a section specifically related to her work as a suffragist, and women's rights advocate. With little scholarship available on African American suffragists, this title would help fill the gap in a library's suffrage collection.
Ginzberg, Lori D. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 2009 (ISBN: 9780809094936).
This biography offers an introduction into the life of the self-professed founder of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. From organizing the first women's rights convention, where she demanded voting right's be added to the Declaration of Sentiments, to the writer behind many of Susan B. Anthony's speeches, Stanton was the consummate intellectual. Her emphasis on elitist views of class, race, and intellect would cause much friction in the movement.
Goldsmith, Barbara. Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998 (ISBN: 9780394555362).
Goldsmith weaves a true tale of scandal and intrigue, all the while covering in-depth the suffrage and the Spiritualist movements. While essentially a biography of Victoria Woodhull, there is plenty of scholarship relating to the political climate of the day including the internal conflicts within the suffrage movement, as well as the Beecher/Tilton Scandal, and the election of 1872 in which Woodhull was the first female candidate for president.
Goodier, Susan. No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013 (ISBN: 9780252078989).
No collection would be complete without a counter argument. The faction against the enfranchisement of women was a conservative group against the change of gender roles being brought about by the "New Woman." By avoiding perceived masculine duties, like voting, these women hoped to retain their feminine traits.
Hundhammer, Katharina. American Women in Cartoons 1890-1920: Female Representation and the Changing Concepts of Femininity During the American Woman Suffrage Movement: An Empirical Analysis. Pieterlen, Switzerland: Peter Lang Verlang, 2012 (ISBN: 9783631637982).
This volume covers the visual aspect of political cartoons in three women's magazines in the United States. The first few chapters specifically deal with the suffrage movement, while additional chapters discuss topics like femininity, and gender identity. A useful title in an area where little scholarship has been done.
Lumsden, Linda J. Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004 (ISBN: 9780253344182).
This first ever biography shows Milholland as the intelligent, compassionate person she was. Lumsden explores her early life in the Adirondack Mountians of New York, to London, to Vassar College. From there Milholland became a lawyer, iconic face of the suffrage movement, pacifist, socialist, and peace advocate during World War I.
McMillen, Sally G. Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement. Oxford, MA: Oxford University Press, 2008 (ISBN: 9780195182651).
Focusing on the start of the suffrage movement, meaning the decade preceding the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, McMillan analyzes how the convention came about, then delves into the next forty years focusing on Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.
MacPherson, Myra, The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age. New York: Grand Central, 2014 (ISBN: 9780446570237).
This is another biography of Victoria Woodhull, which includes additional information about her equally fascinating sister Tennessee Claflin. These sisters had it all: beauty, brains, ambition, and a propensity for making headlines. The suffrage movement is covered in the majority of the middle chapters, interwoven with the overall narrative.
Solomon, Martha M., ed. A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991. (ISBN: 9780817351526).
This book features a series of essays pertaining to the different suffragist newspapers over a 70-year period. Newspapers covered include Amelia Jenks Bloomer's The Lily, Stanton & Anthony's The Revolution, and others. Also included are essays relating to the general purpose and history of women's rights newspapers.
Tetrault, Lisa. The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women's Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014 (ISBN 9781469614274).
This book is not only a history of the suffrage movement but, more importantly, a history of the creation of women's history. By delving into the Seneca Falls Convention mythology as portrayed in The History of Woman Suffrage, edited by Stanton, Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, the author gives a more even-handed look at the movement by including the more conservative faction lead by Lucy Stone.
Walton, Mary. One Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle For the Ballot. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 (ISBN: 9780230611757).
The first full-length biography of suffragist and National Women's Party founder Alice Paul, this book follows the seven years prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, including Paul's controversial picketing of the White House during World War I.
Zahniser, J.D. and Amelia R. Fry, Alice Paul: Claiming Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014 (ISBN 9780199958429).
This is the definitive biography on National Woman's party founder Alice Paul during the suffrage movement years. Based on the 1972 interview of Paul by Amelia Fry, scholar Zahniser completes the work of her predecessor and sheds new light on the suffrage leader and her compatriots. Touching on her family life and Quaker religion, then following her to England working alongside the Pankhurst family, a larger picture of Paul comes to view.
United Kingdom & the Commonwealth
John, Angela and Claire Eustance, ed. The Men's Share? Masculinities, Male Support, and Women's Suffrage in Britain, 1890–1920. London: Routledge, 1997 (ISBN 9780415140010).
One of the few monographs to look at the role of men as pro-suffrage advocates for women, this series of essays deals with gender roles and the concept of masculinity as key in the changing national view that would lead the passage of universal suffrage in the UK. One chapter specifically deals with suffrage in Scotland. Though an older title, it fills a gap in the scholarship regarding the key role of men, without whom enfranchisement of women would never have passed Parliament.
Liddington, Jill. Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship, and the Battle for the Census. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2014 (ISBN: 978-0719087486).
Many militant suffragettes boycotted the census of 1911 as an act of civil disobedience against a government that denied them the vote. Many of the suffragists did comply with the request and were counted.
They Are But Women: The Road to Female Suffrage in Victoria. Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 2007 (ISBN: 978064677275).
Part of the history student research series, this volume discusses the enfranchisement of women in Victoria, Australia. Also discussed are sex, politics, prostitution, and temperance and how they relate to the larger women's rights movement.
Wallace, Ryland. The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1866-1928. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2009 (ISBN: 9780708321737).
With most volumes dealing with the suffrage movement from an English, and some would say, Londoner slant, this work specifically deals with the movement in Victorian and Edwardian Wales. Drawing on archival materials, everyday activities and significant events carry equal weight in this inclusive history.
Europe
Rodriguez-Ruiz, Blanca and Ruth Rubio-Marin, ed. The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2012 (ISBN: 9789004224254; ebook: 9789004229914).
This comprehensive monograph contains essays on the enfranchisement of women in many of the countries that would come to make up the European Union. Countries included in this collection are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
Asia
Edwards, Louise P. and Mina Roces, ed. Women's Suffrage in Asia: Gender, Nationalism, and Democracy. London: Routledge, 2004 (ISBN: 9780415332514).
A collection of essays pertaining to citizenship and the enfranchisement of women in a variety of Asian nations, this volume covers an area of scholarship largely ignored. Countries covered in this monograph are China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as a chapter on Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai'i, which touches on indigenous peoples.
Middle East
Manea, Elham. The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance. London: Routledge, 2011 (ISBN: 9780415617734).
This volume covers women's rights and suffrage in the Arab world and offers specific case studies regarding woman suffrage in Kuwait, Syria, and Yemen. Due to the current state of affairs in Syria, one should remember this work is history rather than current events.
South America
Hammond, Gregory. The Women's Suffrage Movement and Feminism in Argentina from Roca to Peron. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 2011 (ISBN: 9780826350558).
One of the few books dealing with female enfranchisement in a South American country, this book discusses the history of the suffrage movement in Argentina, where women won the vote after World War II, through the tenure of President Juan Peron.
Fiction
Chevalier, Tracy. Falling Angels. New York: Dutton, 2001 (ISBN: 9780525945819).
Set during the reign of Edward VII, this novel follows the lives of two young girls and their families. One mother and daughter become engrossed in the British suffrage movement, which becomes the focus of the second half of the story.
Edwards, Kim. The Lake of Dreams. New York: Viking, 2011 (ISBN: 9780670022175).
Through a fortnight of self-discovery, protagonist Lucy Jarrett delves into her family history and uncovers the legacy of the suffragists and the nineteenth century women's right's movement in the Finger Lakes region of New York state.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Invention of Wings. New York: Viking, 2014 (ISBN: 9780670024780).
Based on the early life of South Carolina abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sarah Grimke, this novel is told alternately from Grimke's point of view and the viewpoint of her slave, Handful. Though the book ends before Grimke truly embraces the suffrage movement, one gets a feel for the beginnings for the women's rights movement.
Monfredo, Miriam Grace. Seneca Falls Inheritance. New York: St. Martin's, 1992 (ISBN: 9780312070823).
This is the first in a six book series set in Seneca Falls, NY during the antebellum period. Librarian Glynis Tryon is assisting in planning the first women's rights convention in 1848 when a murder occurs. Suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other historical characters are convincingly portrayed. Though a cozy mystery, and out of print in hardcover, the serious suffrage collection should consider adding this to their holdings.
Waldman, Ayelet. Love and Treasure. New York: Knopf, 2014 (ISBN: 978-0385533546).
Set mainly around the Holocaust and the Hungarian Gold Train, part of the story takes place in 1913 Budapest, Hungary, and involves a Freudian and a young Jewish suffragist sent to the psychologist to be "cured" of her desire to become a physician and not marry.
Archival Collections
Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrabooks, 1897-1911. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/millerscrapbooks
The seven scrapbooks in the collection are part of the larger National American Women Suffrage Association Collection, which has not been entirely digitized. The digitized scrapbooks are difficult to find. One must navigate from the collection page to "Scrapbook" on the left-hand menu in order to bring up the list of scrapbooks to view. Creating scrapbooks of news clippings, postcards, and ephemera was a popular pastime during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The National Woman's Party Collection. Sewell-Belmont House and Museum, Washington, DC, www.sewallbelmont.org/collections/collections-overview
Housing one of the first feminist libraries in the nation, this collection contains over 10,000 items relating to suffrage movements in the United States and abroad, as well as the Equal Rights Amendment. Banners, scrapbooks, prints, photographs, The Suffragist journal, and political cartoons are available by accessing the PastPerfect online collection link on the Collections Overview page.
The National Woman's Party Papers. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, http://lccn.loc.gov/mm82034355
Nearly two hundred linear feet of records of the National Woman's Party regarding the suffrage movement and the Equal Rights Amendment are housed in this collection in the care of the Library of Congress. Typical organizational records that are part of this collection including meeting minutes, financial records, reports, legal documents, photographs, printed materials, and more. The finding aid is available online to assist in research queries.
Sophia Smith Collection. Women's History Archives at Smith College. Smith College, Northampton, MA, www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/subjsuffrage.html
The Sophia Smith Collection has over two hundred linear feet of archival materials relating to the Suffrage Movement. The bulk of these materials can be found in the Ames Family Papers, the Garrison Family Papers, and the Suffrage Collection. Items include suffrage publications, institutional correspondence, personal correspondence, photographs, memorabilia, biographical sketches, anti-suffrage materials, and scrapbooks. The Alice Morgan Wright papers contain items pertaining to the British suffrage movement. The Suffrage Oral History Project contains transcripts of interviews with prominent suffragists. Extensive finding aids are available online to assist in research queries.
Votes for Women: The Struggle for Women's Suffrage. Library of Congress, Washington DC, www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/076_vfw.html
The selection of images displayed here includes portraits of suffrage leaders, ephemera, political cartoons, and scenes of suffragists at work. The official program of the 1913 suffrage parade is one of the items available for download.
The Women's Library at LSE Collection. London School of Economics, London, http://twl-calm.library.lse.ac.uk/CalmView/Default.aspx?
The Women's Library was founded in 1926 as a repository for materials relating to the ongoing suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. The collection was moved to the London School of Economics in 2012 when London Metropolitan University claimed it could no longer care for the collection. The suffrage portion of this vast collection includes 1,387 published books and pamphlets, sixty journal titles, five hundred separate archives holdings ranging in size from a few items to three hundred boxes. The selection of museum artifacts contains about fifty suffrage banners, along with postcards, photographs, and other textiles. Also included are sixty-eight personal archive series, by suffragists such as Emily Wilding Davidson and Ellen Isabel Jones.
Women's Suffrage in Iowa Digital Collection. University of Iowa Libraries, http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/suffrage
This website combines archival material regarding enfranchisement of women from the Iowa Women's Archives, special collections from University of Iowa and Iowa State University libraries, along with the State Historical Society of Iowa in one convenient location. There are 134 items available online with individual object descriptions. Also featured is an online exhibition of a sampling of the documents, clippings, photographs, and correspondence in the collection. The online exhibit is set up like a scrapbook, similar to what many women were creating at this time in history.
Internet Resources
Britain 1906–1918: Contrast, Contradiction, and Change. The National Archives. London, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/britain1906to1918/default.htm
This section of the National Archives (UK) website contains two interactive case studies about the suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. The website even has tools, like a research guide to help one evaluate the documents and a PowerPoint template to present findings.
Suffragettes: Women Recall Their Struggle to Win the Vote. BBC Archive, www.bbc.co.uk/archive/suffragettes
These sound recordings of interviews with suffragettes were broadcast by the BBC from 1937–1983. They range in duration from one minute to 30 minutes and offer a glimpse into the suffrage movement through the eyes and voices of the women who lived it.
Woman Suffrage Memorabilia. http://womansuffragememorabilia.com
This website offers information and images regarding artifacts and ephemera related to the suffrage movement. Most items represent the movements in the United States and the United Kingdom. Categories include ribbons, buttons, postcards, sheet music, journals, toys and games, pamphlets, and china patterns.
Women's Suffrage. Inter-Parliamentary Union, www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm
This webpage is a simple chronological list of the dates women's suffrage was approved by countries with parliamentary governments from 1788 to 2005.
Woman's Suffrage. The New York Times, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/womens_suffrage/index.html
The New York Times newspaper online contains an archive arranged by topic. The Woman's Suffrage topic contains over 1,700 articles spanning 1860 to the present, covering the fight for full citizenship by women all over the globe. Also included are articles on women in politics.
The Women's Library at LSE Collection. The Digital Library. London School of Economics, London, http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/thewomenslibrary
The digital library offers a timeline of the Women's Library from the sixteenth century through the present. Over three hundred items of the massive collection have been digitized and made available online.
Feature and Nonfeature Films
Iron Jawed Angels. Directed by Katja Von Garnier. 2004. New York: Home Box Office. DVD. (ISBN: 0783125364).
This film is based on the true story of Alice Paul and the National Women's Party, whose "silent sentinels" picketed the White House in a nonviolent form of protest to force President Woodrow Wilson to back what would become the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Not For Ourselves Alone. Directed by Ken Burns. 1999/2003. Alexandria, VA: Public Broadcasting Service. DVD. (ISBN: 1415702543).
An introduction into the women's suffrage movement told through the lives and friendship of the two most iconic members of the movement, the pragmatic Susan B. Anthony, and the visionary Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
One Woman, One Vote. Written and produced by Ruth Pollack. 1995/2005. Alexandria, VA: Public Broadcasting Service. DVD. (ISBN: 0793691087).
This PBS special covers the seventy-two-year American women's suffrage movement from the 1848 Seneca Falls convention though the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Also discussed is the anti-suffrage movement and racism pitting white suffragists against their black sisters.
Susan B. Anthony: Rebel with a Cause. 1995/2005. New York: A&E Television Networks. DVD. (ISBN: 0767082109).
Part of the award winning Biography series on A&E, this documentary about leading suffragist Susan B. Anthony spans her entire life, including her friendship with fellow suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her arrest for voting in the 1872 election.
Sound Recordings
Songs of the Suffragettes. Sung by Elizabeth Knight. Washington DC: Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, 1958/ 2006. CD. (OCLC: 153294038).
One of only a handful of suffrage music recordings. Elizabeth Knight sings sixteen of the most memorable folk songs relating to the American women's suffrage movement.