Ella Riegel (1867 - January 20, 1937) was an American suffragist and women's rights activist. Riegel was a graduate of the first class of Bryn Mawr College and would remain associated with the college the rest of her life.
Ella Riegel (1867 - January 20, 1937) was an American suffragist and women's rights activist. Riegel was a graduate of the first class of Bryn Mawr College and would remain associated with the college the rest of her life.
Regel was born in 1866 in Pennsylvania. [1] Riegel was part of the first class of Bryn Mawr College and graduated in 1889. [2] [3] She became interested in anthropology and archaeology. [1] Riegel was also good with finances and made money through investing in stocks. [1]
Riegel promoted the cause of women's suffrage in many different ways. She was first part of the Congressional Union for Woman's Suffrage, where she served on their finance committee. [1] Later, she joined the National Woman's Party (NWP). [1] In 1916, she was part of the "Suffrage Special," a group of more than twenty suffragists who traveled to the West to promote woman's suffrage. [1] [4] [5] Riegel served as the business manager for the Suffrage Special. [6] Along with Mrs. Charles Wister Ruschenberger, she sent photographs of a "women's liberty bell" to each United States Senator. [7] The bell had a chained tongue, so it could not ring. [7] In 1919, Riegel met with James P. Goodrich, Governor of Indiana, to urge him to call a special legislative session to ratify the woman's suffrage amendment. [8]
In a 75-woman protest carried out on February 9, 1919, Riegel was arrested. [9] The protest was part of a series of "watch fires" carried out by the NWP due to the failure of the Senate to pass the 19th amendment. [9] Riegel carried a suffrage banner and was one of 47 women arrested. [9] She later helped organize the Prison Special to raise awareness about the imprisonment of activists and the inhumane treatment they received in jail. [1]
After women won suffrage rights, Riegel continued to fight for expanding rights in Pennsylvania, where she served as the chair of the state NWP. [10] Riegel also fought for women's independent citizenship and full guardianship of their own children. [11] [12] Riegel was the woman's party delegate to the Hague conference for the Codification of International Law in 1930. [13] She traveled through Europe and Latin America and worked with the Women's Consultative Committee of the League of Nations. [1]
Riegel died in her apartment on Bryn Mawr campus on January 20, 1937. [3] She left $100,000 from her estate to Bryn Mawr, and an archaeology scholarship was created in her name. [14] In 1940, an archaeological museum named for Riegel was opened in the Bryn Mawr library. [15]
The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NWP advocated for other issues including the Equal Rights Amendment. The most prominent leader of the National Woman's Party was Alice Paul, and its most notable event was the 1917–1919 Silent Sentinels vigil outside the gates of the White House.
The Silent Sentinels, also known as the Sentinels of Liberty, were a group of over 2,000 women in favor of women's suffrage organized by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, who nonviolently protested in front of the White House during Woodrow Wilson's presidency starting on January 10, 1917. Nearly 500 were arrested, and 168 served jail time. They were the first group to picket the White House. Later, they also protested in Lafayette Square, not stopping until June 4, 1919 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed both by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Doris Stevens was an American suffragist, woman's legal rights advocate and author. She was the first female member of the American Institute of International Law and first chair of the Inter-American Commission of Women.
Abby Pearce Scott Baker was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate. She served as Political Chair of the National Woman's Party, and played a key role in putting the NWP in the media spotlight in the months leading up to the ratification of Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. She was also active in the Congressional Union for Women's Suffrage. Baker was seen as instrumental in bridging the gap across administrations, from Woodrow Wilson, who was deeply hostile toward the NWP, to Harding, who was seen as more willing to engage the NWP in dialogue, and brought women's participation in party politics to a more acceptable place in the public discourse.
Mary Hamilton Swindler was an American archaeologist, classical art scholar, author, and professor of classical archaeology, most notably at Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan. Swindler also founded the Ella Riegel Memorial Museum at Bryn Mawr College. She participated in various archaeological excavations in Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. The recipient of several awards and honors for her research, Swindler's seminal work was Ancient Painting, from the Earliest Times to the Period of Christian Art (1929).
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns, counties, states and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places, they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members, county clerks, state legislators, judges, and, in the case of Jeannette Rankin, as a member of Congress.
Iris Calderhead was an American suffragist and organizer in the National Woman's Party. She earned an A.B. in English from the University of Kansas in 1910 and completed a graduate degree at Bryn Mawr College in 1913. She was the daughter of William A. Calderhead, the congressional representative for Kansas' 5th District from 1895 to 1911.
Lillian Ascough was an American suffragist. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, she served as the Connecticut chair of the National Woman's Party (NWP) and as the vice president of the Michigan branch of the NWP. At the August 1918 demonstration at Lafayette Square, Ascough was sentenced to fifteen days in jail. Then, in February 1919 she participated in the watchfire demonstrations and was again arrested and sentenced to five days in jail. She was a speaker in the Prison Special tour of the U.S. during February and March 1919.
The "Prison Special" was a train tour organized by suffragists who, as members of the Silent Sentinels and other demonstrations, had been jailed for picketing the White House in support of passage of the federal women's suffrage amendment. In February 1919, 26 members of the National Woman's Party boarded a chartered train they dubbed the "Democracy Limited" in Washington, D.C. They visited cities across the country where they spoke to large crowds about their experiences as political prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse, and were typically dressed in their prison uniforms. The tour, which concluded in March 1919, helped create support for the ratification effort that ended with the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 26, 1920.
Amelia "Mimi" Himes Walker was an American suffragist and women's rights activist. Walker was one of the Silent Sentinels who picketed outside of the White House for women's right to vote. She was arrested in 1917 and sentenced to 60 days in the workhouse. After women secured the right to vote, Walker continued to honor the efforts of the suffragists. She also promoted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
The Suffrage Special was an event created by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1916. The Suffrage Special toured the "free states" which had already allowed women's suffrage in the United States. The delegates were raising awareness of the national women's suffrage amendment. They were also looking to start a new political party, the National Women's Party (NWP). The Suffrage Special, also known as the "flying squadron" left Washington, D.C., and toured the Western states by train for 38 days starting on April 9, 1916. Famous and well-known suffragists made up the envoy of the Suffrage Special. They toured several states during their journey and were largely well-received. When the tour was over, the delegates of the Suffrage Special visited Congress where they presented petitions for women's suffrage they had collected on their journey.
Helen MacGrgeor Todd was an American suffragist and worker's rights activist. Todd started her career as an educator and later became a factory inspector. She wrote about child laborers in factories and became concerned with working women's lack of voting rights. Todd campaigned for women's suffrage across the United States and was an envoy on the Suffrage Special. After women won the right to vote, she continued to advocate for immigrants, workers and women.
Women's suffrage efforts in Texas began in 1868 at the first Texas Constitutional Convention. In both Constitutional Conventions and subsequent legislative sessions, efforts to provide women the right to vote were introduced, only to be defeated. Early Texas suffragists such as Martha Goodwin Tunstall and Mariana Thompson Folsom worked with national suffrage groups in the 1870s and 1880s. It wasn't until 1893 and the creation of the Texas Equal Rights Association (TERA) by Rebecca Henry Hayes of Galveston that Texas had a statewide women's suffrage organization. Members of TERA lobbied politicians and political party conventions on women's suffrage. Due to an eventual lack of interest and funding, TERA was inactive by 1898. In 1903, women's suffrage organizing was revived by Annette Finnigan and her sisters. These women created the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA) in Houston in 1903. TESA sponsored women's suffrage speakers and testified on women's suffrage in front of the Texas Legislature. In 1908 and 1912, speaking tours by Anna Howard Shaw helped further renew interest in women's suffrage in Texas. TESA grew in size and suffragists organized more public events, including Suffrage Day at the Texas State Fair. By 1915, more and more women in Texas were supporting women's suffrage. The Texas Federation of Women's Clubs officially supported women's suffrage in 1915. Also that year, anti-suffrage opponents started to speak out against women's suffrage and in 1916, organized the Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (TAOWS). TESA, under the political leadership of Minnie Fisher Cunningham and with the support of Governor William P. Hobby, suffragists began to make further gains in achieving their goals. In 1918, women achieved the right to vote in Texas primary elections. During the registration drive, 386,000 Texas women signed up during a 17-day period. An attempt to modify the Texas Constitution by voter referendum failed in May 1919, but in June 1919, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment. Texas became the ninth state and the first Southern state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on June 28, 1919. This allowed white women to vote, but African American women still had trouble voting, with many turned away, depending on their communities. In 1923, Texas created white primaries, excluding all Black people from voting in the primary elections. The white primaries were overturned in 1944 and in 1964, Texas's poll tax was abolished. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, promising that all people in Texas had the right to vote, regardless of race or gender.
Eleanor Hiestand Moore, born Eleanor Moore Gill, was an American physician, writer, editor, and suffragist. She coined the suffrage slogan "Ballots for Both", to win a 1916 contest.
Women's suffrage began in Illinois began in the mid-1850s. The first women's suffrage group was formed in Earlville, Illinois, by the cousin of Susan B. Anthony, Susan Hoxie Richardson. After the Civil War, former abolitionist Mary Livermore organized the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA), which would later be renamed the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA). Frances Willard and other suffragists in the IESA worked to lobby various government entities for women's suffrage. In the 1870s, women were allowed to serve on school boards and were elected to that office. The first women to vote in Illinois were 15 women in Lombard, Illinois, led by Ellen A. Martin, who found a loophole in the law in 1891. Women were eventually allowed to vote for school offices in the 1890s. Women in Chicago and throughout Illinois fought for the right to vote based on the idea of no taxation without representation. They also continued to expand their efforts throughout the state. In 1913, women in Illinois were successful in gaining partial suffrage. They became the first women east of the Mississippi River to have the right to vote in presidential elections. Suffragists then worked to register women to vote. Both African-American and white suffragists registered women in huge numbers. In Chicago alone 200,000 women were registered to vote. After gaining partial suffrage, women in Illinois kept working towards full suffrage. The state became the first to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, passing the ratification on June 10, 1919. The League of Women Voters (LWV) was announced in Chicago on February 14, 1920.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Illinois. Women's suffrage in Illinois began in the mid 1850s. The first women's suffrage group was created in 1855 in Earlville, Illinois by Susan Hoxie Richardson. The Illinois Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA), later renamed the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA), was created by Mary Livermore in 1869. This group held annual conventions and petitioned various governmental bodies in Illinois for women's suffrage. On June 19, 1891, women gained the right to vote for school offices. However, it wasn't until 1913 that women saw expanded suffrage. That year women in Illinois were granted the right to vote for Presidential electors and various local offices. Suffragists continued to fight for full suffrage in the state. Finally, Illinois became the first state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on June 10, 1919. The League of Women Voters (LWV) was announced in Chicago on February 14, 1920.
The first women's suffrage effort in Florida was led by Ella C. Chamberlain in the early 1890s. Chamberlain began writing a women's suffrage news column, started a mixed-gender women's suffrage group and organized conventions in Florida.
Julia Blackburn Duke Henning was an American suffragist and clubwoman, based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Josephine Day Bennett was an American activist and suffragist from Connecticut. She was a member of the National Women's Party (NWP) and campaigned for women's suffrage outside of the White House, leading to her arrest. Bennett was also involved in other social issues and was supportive of striking workers.
Lillian GonzalesKohlhamer, also known as Lillian Gottlieb Kohlhamer, was an American suffragist and peace activist, based in Chicago. She was one of the American delegates to the International Congress of Women held in The Hague in 1915, and at the International Woman Suffrage Alliance conference in Geneva in 1920.