An Overview
Abstract
This guide is an overview of Massachusetts Historical Society collections related to the women's suffrage and anti-suffrage movements.
Introduction
This subject guide is a survey of collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society related to the women's suffrage movement. The guide is not a comprehensive list of material related to the topic, but instead an overview of some relevant collections. The guide will continue to be revised as relevant materials are acquired by the MHS.
This guide is arranged into two main sections: pro-women's suffrage materials and anti-women's suffrage materials. Also included is a list of modern publications held by the MHS that supplement the primary documents.
In addition to this guide, the online exhibit Massachusetts Debates a Woman's Right to Vote, derived from the 2019 exhibition, Can She Do It?: Massachusetts Debates a Woman's Right to Vote, features relevant items from MHS collections and includes a variety of digitized documents.
To locate additional items, search the society's online catalog ABIGAIL using the subject headings at the end of this guide.
Detailed Description of the Collection
I. Pro-women's suffrage materials
A. Selected personal and organizational records
The Nathaniel T. Allen papers consist of the papers of the Allen family of West Newton, Massachusetts, primarily educator Nathaniel Allen; his wife Caroline Bassett Allen; and their daughters Fannie Bassett Allen, Sarah Allen Cooney, and Lucy Ellis Allen. Nathaniel Allen's personal correspondence illustrates his involvement with women's suffrage and includes letters from Lucy Stone and others.
The Caroline Wells Healey Dall papers consist of the correspondence, letterbooks, notebooks, scrapbooks, detailed personal journals, and other papers of Caroline Wells Healey Dall, a nineteenth-century reformer and essayist. Dall was a participant in women's suffrage organizations, and her correspondence includes items related to women's suffrage, the National Woman Suffrage Association, and local and national women's suffrage groups.
The Kimball-Griswold family papers contain the papers of Unitarian clergyman John C. Kimball, his wife Emily Richardson Kimball, and their family, as well as members of the related Griswold, Richardson, and Barrett families. The papers of Emily Richardson Kimball, contained in Series III.A. of that collection, reflect her work as a women's rights advocate.
The Calvin W. Smith papers contain letters written to Mary Smith, an active participant in the Massachusetts women's suffrage movement, regarding the movement and her organization of the Suffrage Referendum State Committee. The bulk of the letters are responses to Mrs. Smith's requests to influential individuals to make statements on the women's suffrage question. Her correspondents included Julia Ward Howe, Edward E. Hale, George Frisbie Hoar, and Grindall Reynolds.
The Judith Winsor Smith papers contain family correspondence, diaries, miscellaneous writings, and other personal papers of Judith Winsor Smith, a social reformer and pioneer in the women's suffrage movement. The majority of the content is of a personal nature, although occasional letters and diary entries mention her involvement with the suffrage and anti-slavery movements.
The MHS also holds a letter from suffrage leader Lucy Stone, on the stationery of the Woman's Journal, to Mrs. Steele about the journal's inability to pay for her article. The letter was written on election day, which Stone describes as "the day when our political superiors are electing rulers for Women."
B. Selected contemporary printed materials
The MHS holds a large collection of contemporary printed materials from the debate on women's suffrage. These include published volumes, broadsides, and a sizable pamphlet collection. The following list contains only a few of the items we hold; to find more, consult ABIGAIL, the library catalog.
Ames, Blanche. The Congressional Situation.
Beecher, Henry Ward. Woman's Duty to Vote: Speech by Henry Ward Beecher, at the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, held in New York, May 10, 1866.
Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government. The Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government invites you to a meeting.
Harper, Ida Husted. The National Constitution Will Enfranchise Women.
Harper, Ida Husted. The Winning of the Vote.
Howe, Julia Ward. Julia Ward Howe and the Woman Suffrage Movement: A Selection from her Speeches and Essays.
Long, John Davis. No Distinction of Sex in the Right to Vote.
Robinson, William S. Memorial: [of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association].
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Address in Favor of Universal Suffrage.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn, eds. History of Woman Suffrage.
II. Anti-women's suffrage materials
A. Selected personal and organizational records
The George Francis Dow papers relate to Dow's career as an antiquarian bookseller, genealogist, and historian. Included are political solicitations from the Massachusetts Man Suffrage Association, which worked against women's suffrage in municipal elections.
The papers of Mary Bowditch Forbes of Milton, Massachusetts, an ardent anti-suffragist, conservative Republican, anti-pacifist, anti-socialist, amateur poet, and admirer of Abraham Lincoln, contain material related to her anti-suffrage work, including correspondence with Clara Vezin of the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women records include administrative records, minutes of various committee meetings, lectures and reports, correspondence, material concerning the organization's history and the legislative history of the suffrage movement, and a small number of miscellaneous printed items.
The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women scrapbooks and pamphlets consist of nine volumes and three boxes of pamphlets and publications from the organization. Some items are individually described in ABIGAIL.
B. Selected contemporary printed materials
The MHS holds a large collection of contemporary printed materials from the debate of women's suffrage, including hundreds of anti-women's suffrage pamphlets. The following list contains only a few of the items we hold; to find more, consult ABIGAIL, the library catalog.
Baruch, Isabelle Wolfe. Feminism is a Bar to Social Betterment and The Affiliation of Suffrage and Feminism.
Chittenden, Alice Hill. Anti-suffragists Do Not Intend to Have Ballot Forced on Majority Because Minority Wants It.
Craven, M. B. The Apostle Paul, vs. Female Enfranchisement.
Goodwin, Grace Duffield. Anti-suffrage: Ten Good Reasons.
Hubbard, Benjamin Vestal. Socialism, Feminism, and Suffragism: The Terrible Triplets, Connected by the Same Umbilical Cord, and Fed from the Same Nursing Bottle.
Illinois Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women. Are Men Enslaved?: Ought They to be Emancipated?
Indignant Suffragists.
Leatherbee, E. B. Anti-Suffrage Campaign Manual.
Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. Annual Report, 1895-1906.
Reports include details about membership numbers, strategies and activities, publication distribution, and arguments of the association.
Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. Arguments for Woman Suffrage Considered.
Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. Miscellaneous Collection of Anti-suffrage Material Assembled by an Officer of the Association...
Materials include clippings, posters, periodicals, and publications of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. Included in the material is the Anti-Suffragist and Anti-Suffrage Bulletin, monthly publications from the association detailing its activities.
Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. Why Women Do Not Want the Ballot.
The Remonstrance.
This quarterly periodical was begun by Massachusetts anti-suffragists in 1890 and circulated nationally. It was later published by the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. From 1890-1913, the periodical was published under the title The Remonstrance and, from 1914 until its last issue in 1920, as The Remonstrance Against Woman Suffrage. The periodical reported on anti-suffrage news from across the country and included printed literature from anti-suffrage authors.
III. Selected modern publications
Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists.
Baker, Jean H., ed. Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited.
Berenson, Barbara F. Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers.
Friedl, Bettina. On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman Suffrage Movement.
Lange, Allison K. Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women's Suffrage Movement.
Marshall, Susan E. Splintered Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Campaign against Woman Suffrage.
Robinson, Harriet, Clauda L. Bushman, ed. Going to Boston: Harriet Robinson's Journey to New Womanhood.
Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn. African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920.
Preferred Citation
When using the items described in this guide, researchers should cite the collection containing the item.
Access Terms
For information about the collections and items described in this guide, consult ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.