Growth of Democracy and American Dreams

Computer-Supported Inquiry Activity

Inquiry Questions:

During the more than 70 years that American women sought the right to vote, what were the arguments for and against women’s suffrage and who proposed them? What can you say about the quality of the arguments that may have eventually led to women’s suffrage?

Activity:

Use the Synthesizing Information strategy to gather and organize information on the question above.

Useful Web sites:

Votes for Women: Selections from the American Women Suffrage Association 1848-1921

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawshome.html

The NAWSA Collection in the Library of Congress consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. They are a subset of the Library's larger collection donated by Carrie Chapman Catt, longtime president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in November of 1938. The collection includes works from the libraries of other members and officers of the organization including: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Mary A. Livermore.

Votes for Women: Suffrage Pictures 1859-1920

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html

This selection of 38 pictures from the Library of Congress American Memory series includes portraits of many individuals who have been frequently requested from the holdings of the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division. Also featured are photographs of suffrage parades, picketing suffragists, and an anti-suffrage display, as well as cartoons commenting on the movement--all evoking the visible and visual way in which the debate over women's suffrage was carried out. This online illustrated reference aid is part of the "By Popular Demand" series. It is a pictorial partner for the text documents in "'Votes for Women:' Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Collection, 1848-1920."

Motherhood, Social Service and Political Reform: Political Culture and Imagery of American Woman Suffrage

http://www.nmwh.org/exhibits/intro.html

The first American women's rights convention was held in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. At that convention, the delegates adopted a platform that called for a broad range of social, economic, legal, and political reforms that would dramatically raise the status of women in American life. To the surprise of most of us today, the demand for women's right to vote (called woman suffrage) was the most controversial reform proposed at the convention. From the time it was first formally proposed in 1848, gaining the right to vote took the women's movement 72 years of struggle to achieve. This exhibit examines the development of a distinct female political culture and imagery that evolved to promote voting rights for women.

Women’s Suffrage in Political Cartoons

http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/suf_intro.html

Short essay by Jim Zwick and links to numerous cartoons related to the women’s suffrage movement.

Auto Tours for Women’s Suffrage: An Oral Memoir

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5334

Audio and transcript of interview with Laura Ellsworth Seiler, who campaigned for suffrage after college on an auto tour.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online 1841-1902

http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/

Approximately 147,000 pages of newspaper, organized by topic. After entering the project, choose “Selected Topics” Last one is on women and women’s suffrage. Good for getting alternative views.

More Logic, Less Feeling: Senator Vest Nixes Woman Suffrage

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5319

1887 Senate speech by George G. Vest of Missouri that puts forth traditional arguments against women’s suffrage. From the History Matters collection of primary source documents.

History Matters

http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/search.php?function=find

Collection of websites on women’s suffrage.