Primary Sources: Social Reform & Activism: Voting

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Images of the Suffrage Movement in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Electronic Reader Image Galleries
A cooperative digital imaging project of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison General Library System and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

"Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was an internationally recognized suffragist, feminist and political activist. The Catt photograph collection consists of over 800 photographs of suffrage leaders and events, dating primarily from the last years of the nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth century."

"A humorous and highly entertaining account of suffrage written by a man married to a suffragist who is also a supporter of the woman suffrage movement."

"The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection is a library of nearly 800 books and pamphlets documenting the suffrage campaign that were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA and donated to the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress on November 1, 1938.

The bulk of the collection is derived from the library of Carrie Chapman Catt, president of NAWSA from 1900-1904, and again from 1915-1920. Additional materials were donated to the NAWSA Collection from the libraries of other members and officers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, and Mary A. Livermore."

"Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party "
Library of Congress

From the National Archives Teaching with Documents site (scroll all the way to the bottom to see an image of the actual petition)

Includes the complete trial record, the Supreme Court decision, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, political cartoons, etc.

"Lynda Blackmon Lowery described her role as the youngest member of the Selma, Alabama Civil Rights March in 1965. Along with her co-authors, Susan Buckley and Elspeth Leacock, Lowery recounted her childhood during this period, and discussed the background of events that led to his landmark action. The authors showed illustrations and photographs from their book as well as primary sources, including original film footage, from the period."

National American Woman Association Collection contains books, pamphlets and other sources documenting the suffrage movement 1848-1921.

A collection of documents from the Wisconsin Historical Society

From the National Archives' Teaching with Documents site

"Includes sources relating to the political, economic and social status of women (mostly in Britain), and campaigns for equal rights."

"Fannie Lou Hamer, the last of 20 children and a Mississippi tenant farmer, leapt to national prominence during the 1964 Democratic National Convention, when she eloquently challenged Mississippi’s segregated Democratic primary on national television. In 1962, she had become a leader of the African-American voting rights movement in Mississippi that culminated in 1964’s Freedom Summer. Forced off her land when her landlord demanded that she take her name off the voter registration list, Hamer was repeatedly jailed and beaten during her voting rights activities. “The only thing they could do to me was kill me,” Hamer said, “and it seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember.”"