Suffrage Memorabilia

The reverse of these postcards reads: “Published on a profit sharing plan, whereby every dollar’s worth sold means money in the National treasury. Endorsed and Approved by the National American Woman Suffrage Association.”


Paper fan issued by the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association to support a 1915 state referendum to give women the vote, with a map highlighting the states in which women already had the vote. The referendum failed, and Massachusetts allowed women to vote only after the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. A similar fan was created in New York.


Inez Milholland Boissevain is pictured here in a memorial poster as she appeared at the March 1913 woman suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., riding a white stallion. She became a symbol, ambassador, and later martyr of the woman suffrage movement. In 1916, despite ill health, she agreed to an arduous tour through twelve western Equal Suffrage states to promote the cause. She collapsed on stage in Los Angeles that September while giving a speech for the National Woman’s Party, and died ten weeks later at the age of thirty.

Inez Milholland graduated from Vassar College in 1909 and received a law degree from New York University. She originally used the motto, “Forward Into Light” (taken from a hymn by Henry Alford), on a sign in her first suffrage parade on May 7, 1911. On November 1, Milholland was scheduled to speak at a meeting of the Cornell Equal Suffrage Club, one of a series of meetings held in Ithaca under the auspices of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, but she was unable to attend. The poster’s gold, white, and purple colors reproduce the official colors of the National Woman’s Party.

Suffrage Pins

The slogan “I am a Citizen” was used throughout the 1915 campaign in New York. The pin has an original back paper from the Woman’s Political Union in New York City and was manufactured by Whitehead & Hoag Co., Newark, N.J.

The six stars indicated that six states had voted for woman suffrage. The pin was manufactured by Bastian Bros. Co. Mfrs. of Ribbon Metal and Celluloid Novelties, Rochester, NY.

Probably a pin for the successful 1917 campaign to extend suffrage to women in the state of New York. The pin has a label on white paper, printed in red: Woman Suffrage Pub. Co., Inc. /171 Madison Ave./ New York.

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