On August 18, 1920, Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women across the country the right to vote. This historic moment was largely the result of the work of activists and organizations advocating for universal voting rights. While these efforts started earlier, work for the amendment was the culmination of a twentieth-century women’s suffrage movement. This movement faced formidable political and social opposition and delay in moments of national concern like World War I. This set of primary sources—photos, advertisements, maps, and other documents—sheds light on that struggle toward the Nineteenth Amendment.
“Votes for women,” a 1912 suffrage map showing the status of women’s suffrage in each state.
An anti-suffrage lithograph illustration. It reads: “The home or street corner for woman? Vote no on woman suffrage.”
An anti-suffrage postcard from a campaign to reach government officials, 1916.
A 1914 poster for the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. It reads, “Men! Give women votes to protect the children!”
A flyer listing reasons for a constitutional amendment, printed by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, July 1918.
The House of Representatives’ joint resolution on the Nineteenth Amendment.
A 1915 postcard of Kewpie dolls titled “Votes for Women: The Spirit of ’76.”
A 1912 postcard from a suffragette discussing her work on state suffrage campaigns.
A postcard of nurses marching in a suffrage parade, 1913.
A photo of a suffragette appealing to striking workers in Paterson, New Jersey in 1913.
A card “to a suffragette valentine.”
Part of a set of banners ridiculing objections to women’s suffrage; this one says, “It would make women less attractive to men.”
A photograph of a suffrage parade, 1913.
A National Woman’s Party woman suffrage banner, 1914-1917.
A photo portrait of Ida B. Wells, a social reformer who campaigned for the inclusion of black women in the national suffrage movement.
