Carrie Chapman Catt was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1904 and 1915 to 1920. She founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1904, which was later named International Alliance of Women. She "led an army of voteless women in 1919 to pressure Congress to pass the constitutional amendment giving them the right to vote and convinced state legislatures to ratify it in 1920". She "was one of the best-known women in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century and was on all lists of famous American women."
Martha Coffin Wright was an American feminist, abolitionist, and signatory of the Declaration of Sentiments who was a close friend and supporter of Harriet Tubman.
Margaret Murray Washington was an American educator who was the principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which later became Tuskegee University. She also led women's clubs, including the Tuskegee Woman's Club and the National Federation of Afro-American Women. She was the third wife of Booker T. Washington. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1972.
Margaret W. Campbell was an American women's suffrage advocate.
Sarah "Annie" Turner Wittenmyer was an American social reformer, relief worker, and writer. She served as the first President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union from 1874 to 1879. The Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home was renamed the Annie Wittenmyer Home in 1949 in her honor.
Mary Jane (Whitely) Coggeshall was an American suffragist known as the "mother of woman suffrage in Iowa". She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.
Bess Bolden Walcott (1886-1988) was an American educator, librarian, museum curator and activist who helped establish the historical significance of the Tuskegee University. Recruited by Booker T. Washington to help him coordinate his library and teach science, she remained at the institute until 1962, but continued her service into the 1970s. Throughout her fifty-four year career at Tuskegee, she organized Washington's library, taught science and English at the institute, served as founder and editor of two of the major campus publications, directed public relations, established the Red Cross chapter, curated the George Washington Carver collection and museum and assisted in Tuskegee being placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Elizabeth Morrison Harbert was a 19th-century American author, lecturer, reformer and philanthropist from Indiana. She was the first women to design a woman's plank and secure its adoption by a major political party in a U.S. state.
Woodland Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Des Moines, Iowa, having been established in 1848, before Des Moines was the state capital. It is a municipal cemetery owned and operated by the Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department. It covers 69 acres (28 ha) at the corner of 20th Street and Woodland Ave and is the site of over 80,000 graves.
Eugenia Clark Pomeroy was an American writer and journalist.
Estelle Turrell Smith was an American social reformer.
Annie Nowlin Savery was an American suffragist and philanthropist based in Des Moines, Iowa. She is known as a pioneer feminist and activist for woman suffrage. She began taking part in the woman suffrage movement in the 1860s, and became a leader in the county and state, speaking widely and helping establish organizations to support it.
Charlotte Wilson Jackson was an American artist and activist from Michigan. She was the first African American to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1901, Wilson oversaw the exhibition of African-American artists at the Pan-American Exposition.
Nettie Sanford Chapin was a 19th-century American teacher, historian, author, newspaper publisher, suffragist, and activist. Chapin wrote mostly prose. She also wrote on Iowa history, and published several small books herself. While residing at Washington, D.C., for several winters, she wrote concerning society and fashionable Washington circles. In 1875, she began the publication of The Ladies Bureau, the first newspaper published west of Chicago by a woman. Chapin served as chair of the National Committee of the National Equal Rights Party.
Sue M. Wilson Brown was an African-American activist for women's suffrage. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.
Efforts toward women's suffrage began early in Iowa's history. During the territory's Constitutional Convention, discussions on both African American and women's suffrage took place. Early on, women's rights were discussed in the state by women such as Amelia Bloomer and petitions for suffrage were sent to the Iowa state legislature. While African American men earned the right to vote in 1868, women from all backgrounds had to continue to agitate for enfranchisement. One of the first suffrage groups was formed in Dubuque in 1869. Not long after, a state suffrage convention was held in Mount Pleasant in 1870. Iowa suffragists focused on organizing and lobbying the state legislature. In 1894, women gained the right to vote on municipal bond and tax issues and also in school elections. These rights were immediately utilized by women who turned out in good numbers to vote on these issues. By the 1910s, the state legislature finally passed in successive sessions a women's suffrage amendment to the state constitution. This resulted in a voter referendum to be held on the issue on June 5, 1916. The campaign included anti-suffrage agitation from liquor interests who claimed that women's suffrage would cause higher taxes. The amendment was defeated, though a subsequent investigation turned up a large amount of fraud. However, the election could not be invalidated and women had to wait to vote. On July 2, 1919, Iowa became the tenth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Iowa. Women's suffrage work started early in Iowa's history. Organizing began in the late 1960s with the first state suffrage convention taking place in 1870. In the 1890s, women gained the right to vote on municipal bonds, tax efforts and school-related issues. By 1916, a state suffrage amendment went to out to a voter referendum, which failed. Iowa was the tenth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919.
Ida L. Cummins was a women's rights and children's rights activist living in Des Moines, Iowa and Washington, D.C. She was the wife of Albert B. Cummins, three term governor of the state of Iowa and U.S. Senator for Iowa for 18 years. She was active in the Des Moines Women's Club and served as the 10th president from 1895 to 1896. She and her husband were also active speakers and proponents of Women's Suffrage in Iowa hosting suffrage events in their home. She was president of the National Society Children of the American Revolution.
A. L. Frisbie was a pioneer minister at Plymouth Church, Des Moines, Iowa, from 1871 to 1899. After he retired he served as Pastor Emeritus for a total of 42 years of service. Martha Frisbie was a teacher and leader in the Iowa Congregational Church. Frisbie Park in Des Moines and the former Frisbie Public School were named for them. The Frisbies were active abolitionists and suffrage advocates in Des Moines. He shepherded Plymouth Congregational Church during years of growth and building. She was a teacher and a leader in women’s organizations. Her former students formed the Frisbie Club, a study club which still exists today.
