Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party

Women demonstrating outside the White House
[Detail] Suffragists picketing in front of the White House. Harris & Ewing. 1917.
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Overview

The National Woman’s Party, representing the militant wing of the suffrage movement, utilized open public demonstrations to gain popular attention for the right of women to vote in the United States. Their picketing, pageants, parades, and demonstrations—as well as their subsequent arrests, imprisonment, and hunger strikes—were successful in spurring public discussion and winning publicity for the suffrage cause. Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party presents both images that depict this broad range of tactics as well as individual portraits of organization leaders and members. The photographs span from about 1875 to 1938 but largely date between 1913 and 1922. They document the National Woman’s Party’s push for ratification of the 19th Amendment as well as its later campaign for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. This online presentation is a selection of 448 photographs from the approximately 2,650 photographs in the Records of the National Woman’s Party collection, housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.

Timeline

Time for the Vote!

Essay

Suffrage Campaign Tactics