Women's Suffrage Memorabilia: An Illustrated Historical Study

While historians have long recognized the importance of memorabilia to the Woman Suffrage movement, the subject has not been explored apart from a few restricted, albeit excellent, studies. Part of the problem is that such objects are scattered about in various collections and museums and can be difficult to access. Another is that most scholars do not have ready knowledge 1of the general nature and history of the type of objects (postcards, badges, sashes, toys, ceramics, sheet music, etc.) that suffragists produced. Then-new techniques in both printing and manufacturing created numerous possibilities for supporters to develop campaigns of “visual rhetoric.” This work analyzes 70 different categories of suffrage memorabilia, while providing numerous images of relevant objects along the way and discussing these innovative production methods. Most important, this study looks at period accounts, often fascinating, of how, why when, and where the memorabilia were used in both America and England.