Making the Case for Suffrage

January 07, 2026

March 13, 2026

Rauner Library, Class of 1965 Galleries

Curated by Sarah Bowman.

Illustration of a man on a white horse blowing a long trumpet with a woman and another figure behind. Trees, hedges, and a rendering of the US capitol in background, right.

Overview

From the vantage point of 2026, women’s right to vote can seem like a foregone conclusion. Yet it took women almost 150 years from the founding of the United States, and over 70 years from the first women’s rights convention, for women to achieve suffrage on a national level. And even then, it was a partial victory: the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, did not protect the rights of minoritized women, many of whom remained prohibited in practice from exercising the franchise.

This exhibit examines some of the strategies women employed to argue for their right to suffrage. It looks at how suffragists relied on mass media and popular culture to create what they referred to as “propaganda” for their cause. It highlights how they utilized American symbols, how they deployed their organizational networks in campaigns of persuasion, and how they eventually turned to more public and direct forms of action to convince American men to grant them the vote.

This exhibit is not a comprehensive overview of the suffrage movement. Limited by the material in Rauner’s collections, it largely focuses on white women suffragists and on the final two decades of the suffrage campaign.

Exhibit Poster

Handlist

"Hearing of the Woman Suffrage Association," January 18, 1892. Val 324.3 Un3h

In her testimony before the U.S. Congress, Elizabeth Cady Stanton argued for the right to vote based on women’s "birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself." In the margins of this copy, Susan B. Anthony wrote that she considered this the best pro-suffrage argument Stanton ever made. Appearing before congressional committees remained a key feature of the struggle for the vote.

Susan B. Anthony letter July 19, 1876. Mss 876419.

Anthony knew that simply presenting the "Declaration of the Rights of the Women of the United States" in public was not enough to get its message to the public. This letter showcases the way suffragists like Anthony drew on organizational networks and their own newspapers to advance their cause.

National Woman Suffrage Association, "Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States," July 4, 1876. Rare Book HQ1236 .D44 1876.

When the nation celebrated its centennial in 1876, suffragists capitalized on the historic moment. They drew up a "Declaration of the Rights of the Women of the United States" that arraigned the government for denying women equal rights. When they asked to present the document at a reading of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, they were denied. Undeterred, they took the stage anyway and distributed copies through the crowd.

"Report of the Woman's Rights Convention, held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., July 19th & 20th, 1848." Rare Book JK1885 1848d no. 1.

By 1848, women had been active in reform movements for some time; their marginalization in some of that work was one of the factors that prompted them to call for women’s rights. The "Declaration of Sentiments," largely written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, drew on the natural rights rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence to highlight the "abuses and usurpations" that led them to "demand the equal station" to which women were entitled.
"Elizabeth Cady Stanton to her life-long friend and co-worker Susan B. Anthony on her eightieth birthday," February 15, 1900. Rare Book PS2904.S8 E455 1900.

On one level a personal memento, this item also participated in a broader trend: suffragists deliberately commemorated (and contested) the history of their own movement as they sought to shape its future. Stanton and Anthony’s book The History of Woman Suffrage (written with Matilda Joslyn Gage), was key in establishing a historical memory of the movement with Stanton and Anthony at its center.

Millis, MA citizens petition to US Senator John W. Weeks, July 28, 1916; Anna C. Bird letter, September 21, 1918. John W. Weeks papers.

Petitioning and letter-writing formed two crucial tools in the suffragists’ arsenal. They were ways to demonstrate to legislators at the local, state, and national levels that the woman’s vote had popular support. Activists sent well over 2,000 such petitions to Congress. (John W. Weeks, the addressee of these documents, continued to oppose suffrage. He lost his Senate seat in 1918 after women campaigned against him.)

Carrie Chapman Catt to C.G. McDavitt, January 16, 1900. Mss 900116.

When C.G. McDavitt was preparing a political science paper for a Dartmouth class, he wrote to Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the largest women’s rights organization in the country (the National American Woman Suffrage Association), to ask about suffragists’ beliefs. Not wasting an opportunity to spread the word, Catt sent him several leaflets and a Woman’s Century Calendar along with her response.

"Suffrage Conferred by the Fourteenth Amendment," 1871. Rare Book JK 1911 .D5 R5

Suffragists divided over how to respond to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which granted citizenship rights to former slaves and prevented the denial of the vote based on race. Many women argued that the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws endowed women with the right to vote, and attempted to register. When several women did so in Washington, D.C., the court struck down their efforts.

"Since my Margarette become-a-da-suffragette," 1913. SC 6970.

With lyrics like "She wear-a-da pants, dat kill da' ro-mance," and "She says I’m treas', I take de mon-ey, My bank book limp, get so small like da shrimp," this popular song reinforced a core proposition of the anti-suffrage movement: women’s vote would lead to domineering women, submissive men, and broken households. The racism of the caricature was a core part of anti-suffrage arguments. Many white suffragists themselves advanced racist arguments for the vote.

"She’s good enough to be your baby's mother and she's good enough to vote with you," 1916. SC 4077.

This popular song, while not written by suffragists, demonstrates how pro-suffrage messages had seeped into popular culture by the 1910s. The smiling young mother dressed in white and the cheerful baby countered anti-suffrage depictions of suffragists as angry old spinsters. And the message–that motherhood was a qualification for the ballot rather than a detriment–echoed suffragists' arguments.

Marion Morse MacKaye, image of woman suffrage fan, 1915, and "Description of a Fan designed for the Suffrage," 1915. MacKaye Family papers.

In 1915, New York suffragists mounted a campaign to achieve suffrage in their state. Seeking to raise funds, they staged a suffrage baseball game. Marion Morse MacKaye designed a suffrage-themed fan for the game whose elements were meant to symbolize the cause. The fan is just one example of how suffragists turned consumer goods into advertising vehicles for the suffrage message.

Woman suffrage leaflets, Political Equality League of Wisconsin, ca. 1912. Robert P. Bass papers.

Many suffragists centered their case not on women’s equality with men but on their supposedly natural capacities as mothers. In their telling, the urgent problems of the era, such as urban sanitation and industrial food production, prevented women from being able to carry out their responsibility of protecting the home. Granting the vote would not upend the social order, but rather enable women to carry out their "housekeeping" role.

National American Woman Suffrage Association, Woman suffrage pamphlets and leaflets,, undated. Robert P. Bass papers.

It is hard to overstate the amount of ephemeral literature the woman suffrage movement produced. Between 1914 and 1919, the National American Woman Suffrage Association alone distributed over 50 million pieces of literature. Leaflets in particular were cheap ways to disseminate pro-suffrage ideas: the organization’s political equality leaflets sold for 15 cents per 100.

National Woman Suffrage Association, "Liberty Welcomes the Sixth Star" postcard, 1911. Robert P. Bass papers.

The early 20th century witnessed a boom in the circulation of postcards. Eager to capitalize on advances in mass media, suffragists adopted the format as one of many ways to spread their message. This postcard celebrates California becoming the sixth state to grant women suffrage. The use of the Statue of Liberty linked suffrage to the rhetoric of American liberty.

Clarence E. Carr to Mary N. Chase, ca. 1902-1903. Carrie Chapman Catt to Clarence E. Carr, February 2, 1903. Clarence E. Carr papers.

In late 1902, New Hampshire’s constitutional convention passed a measure that would have given women the right to vote. However, New Hampshire voters still had to approve it. As they did in other states, suffragists mounted a campaign of persuasion. They aimed to leverage the power of mass media, mass meetings, and existing organizational networks like the Grange in what Clarence E. Carr called "a campaign of education."

Ethel Smyth, "The March of the Women," 1911. MacKaye Family papers

Women’s suffrage meetings and parades frequently featured songs as a way to rally enthusiasm and shared purpose. Suffragists sang this song, by a British composer, as they delivered suffrage petitions to the steps of the U.S. Capitol in May, 1914.

The Suffragist, February 26, 1916. MacKaye Family papers.

Not content with getting the word out through the mainstream press, suffragists published their own newspapers. The outlets kept readers informed of campaigns and events, created a sense of community, and advanced ideas and strategies.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Suffrage Songs and Verses, 1911. Rare Book JF851.G57 1911.

The writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman reprinted these poems from The Woman’s Journal and from her own paper The Forerunner. She clearly intended them to be used in the movement, advertising "special rates to suffragists on lots of 100 or more," and the National American Woman Suffrage Association featured the pamphlet in their catalog of suffrage literature, deeming it "suitable for readings and recitations."

Hazel MacKaye, "Plays and Pageants in Connection with Woman Suffrage." Lecture at the "School for Suffrage," Washington, D.C., December 12, 1913. MacKaye Family papers.

As Hazel MacKaye and other suffragists understood, "[t]the work of propaganda" was central to the suffrage movement. And as she argued, drama was an especially effective means to propagandize for the cause. By appealing to people's emotions, a "good 'show'" could do more than mere words on a page to attract support. And of course, pageants helped raise money.

Woman Suffrage Addresses and Pageant-Tableau program, May 2, ca. 1913. MacKaye Family papers.

Nine suffrage organizations collaborated to stage the pageant-tableau "A Dream of Freedom" in 1913 in conjunction with the suffrage parade they held on the following day. The characters in the pageant hint at its storyline: Hope, Handmaidens of Freedom, Woman, Her Sleeping Sisters, Justice, and Columbia. In the final scene, "Woman, her progress barred, invokes Justice…She commands the men to open their ranks."

Woman suffrage parade flyer, 1912, and photograph. Women’s Political Union collection.

Organizers understood that parades were public symbols. They demonstrated the extent of support for suffrage and showcased women’s value to society. When the Women’s Political Union planned a New York City parade in 1912, they took care to feature a range of working women. (However, white women organizers of such parades often attempted to segregate black women.) They advised participants to wear white (a symbol of purity) and to "[r]emember you are marching for a principle." The marchers were nevertheless attacked.

Suffrage sashes, undated. MacKaye family papers.

Sashes like these were a regular feature at suffrage rallies and marches. The colors yellow, orange, purple, and white, while common in suffrage campaigns, were not universal.

Official Program of the Woman Suffrage Procession, Washington, DC, and photographic print of tableau, 1913. MacKaye Family papers.

What better way to gain attention for the suffrage cause than to stage a massive parade in Washington, D.C. on the eve of a presidential inauguration? As the organizers wrote, the parade told a "story." The first section heralded suffrage movements across the world; the second narrated the progress of the American movement; the third presented the contemporary situation, where "Men and Women Make the State: Man Alone Rules the State." An allegorical tableau on the steps of the Treasury building concluded the march. As with the parade in New York City the previous year, marchers were attacked.

"Suffragists' Showiest Parade Along Fifth Avenue," New York Times, May 11, 1913. MacKaye Family papers.

As public spectacles, suffrage parades were highly newsworthy. Suffragists well knew that newspaper coverage would disseminate their ideas to a mass reading public. While women parading may seem like a commonplace occurrence today, at the time many suffragists resisted the strategy. They worried it was too aggressive an approach.

The Suffragist, January 17, 1917. MacKaye Family papers.

After Woodrow Wilson came into office in 1913, suffragists tried multiple times to persuade him to throw his weight behind a suffrage amendment. With few signs of progress, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage adopted a new approach in 1917: picketing the White House. The strategy garnered widespread news coverage. After the United States entered World War II that spring, such action by suffragists was seen as undermining the war effort, and picketers were thrown in jail.

Lucy Branham speech, September 16, 1918. MacKaye Family papers.

In September, 1918, leaders of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association visited President Wilson at the White House to urge him to support a suffrage amendment. Leaders of the more-radical National Woman’s Party condemned Wilson’s response as "empty words." They gathered in Lafayette Square opposite the White House and burned a copy of Wilson’s message as "a symbol of the indignation of American women at the treatment given by the President to their plea for democracy."