Exhibits
Meet Maine Here.
The Maine Story
Taking to the Streets and to the Lecture Halls
1913 (Library of Congress Collection)
More than 5,000 women marched in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration for his first term as president. The march was a protest against women’s exclusion from politics, and specifically from voting.
Alice Paul, later head of the National Woman’s Party, organized the widely publicized event for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Inez Holland, a labor lawyer, dressed in white, led the parade on horseback. Groups of marchers were organized by occupations, states, and countries, with male supporters at the end. Maine is listed in the program as having participants.
Southern white women wanted to boycott the parade because black suffragists planned to march. Some groups separated black and white participants, while others did not.
Some men along the route harassed the marchers, leading to Congressional investigations about the lack of police protection for the parade.
Belfast, 1916 (Maine Historical Society Collection)
The National American Woman Suffrage Association sponsored Hughston’s trip to Maine and other states to help organize local chapters and build legislative support for women’s voting rights.
Hughston spoke the next week in Bath, and likely visited other communities as well.
The gold pennant with the familiar “Votes for Women” slogan was a common sight at outdoor suffrage events and lectures organized by both the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage/National Woman’s Party and the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
ca. 1915 (Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England)
ca. 1916 (Posie Cowan Collection)
In parades, and at legislative hearings and other events, suffrage supporters often wore sashes, armbands, or other items of clothing with the suffrage colors — purple, white, and gold for the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage or National Woman’s Party, and yellow or gold for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. They often also donned yellow jonquils or another yellow flower.
Both groups – whose banners often included the text “Votes for Women” – were active in Maine during the final years before women got the vote in 1920.
ca. 1916 (Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England)
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organized the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1913. Both women had been in England and adopted British suffragettes’ tactics and their colors – purple, white, and green. Purple represents loyalty, white purity, and gold, which they used instead of green, hope.
The National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the other large suffrage group in the 20th century, used only yellow – or gold – as its color. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had adopted yellow when campaigning for woman’s rights in Kansas in 1869 – where sunflowers were common.
ca. 1916 (Posie Cowan Collection)
Portland, 1914 (Personal collection on loan to Maine State Museum)
ca. 1914 (Private Collection)
Automobiles gained in popularity in the early years of the 20th century and were, for women, both a means of transportation and a sign of independence.
Florence Brooks Whitehouse, dressed in white and seated in the middle row, was head of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage branch in Portland and was one of many women who drove or rode in cars to a 1914 rally where speakers inspired women and men to work for the cause.
This Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes ad was first published in the magazine Woman’s Home Companion. The ad uses a suffrage theme to appeal to women who wanted the vote and also made the decisions about family food purchase.
