~ contributed by Jodi Kearns
I am so happy to be able to vote in the 2016 election! My first US federal election was 2012, after naturalizing in 2010. The 2012 and 2016 elections are historical for reasons we all know. I do not take for granted that one hundred years ago my American sisters-in-arms were still fighting for this very right.
After encountering a blog about century-old propaganda postcards against women voting, I wondered if the Cummings Center had any of its own in the David P. Campbell Postcard Collection.
Yes.
[Note: Two days after writing this, I encountered another similar story that shows many of these same postcards you’re about to see.]
These postcards seem to be warning that henpecked and browbeaten men will be forced to look after children, clean house, and do laundry once women can vote: the victims of women’s suffrage. Women are warned about trouble with the law, being unmarriable, and becoming plain-looking [Gasp!].
Women’s Suffrage Postcards from 1900s & 1910s from David P. Campbell Postcard Collection [Click the thumbnails to view.]
The collection does have a few pro-women’s rights gems, although -honestly- sometimes it’s difficult to tell.
Her hero is campaigning for women’s voting rights, though Cupid seems a little sad.
And postcards celebrating Suffragettes’ victories!
Way to go, Colorado!
It seems feminists have been saying for some time that voting rights are about equality, not domination -rhetoric I still hear.
A message endorsed and approved by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1910
Be inspired! I am.
A hundred-year walk from the Capitol to the White House
