(1890–1970) Peggy was a well-known artist and suffragist in Greenwich Village. She was known to mix with radicals, writers, poets, and artists. In 1917 she met Dorothy Day and became close friends for the rest of their lives. They joined the National Woman's Party and picketed in front of the White House to urge the passage of the woman suffrage amendment. Later that day, Peggy, Dorothy, and others were arrested and sent to Occoquan workhouse. Peggy earned the “prison pin,” a symbol of her “sacrifice of individual liberty for the liberty of all women.”

(1878–1956) Little is documented about Edith's suffrage activities beyond being involved in the Bristol Woman's Club, where she was one of the speakers who spoke on the topic of suffrage.

If you know more about her, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information.

(1883–1978) Rosalie was an Oyster Bay socialite and suffragist known as "General Jones." She exemplified both her ideology of doing the work and leading her "soldiers of the suffragette movement" by organizing numerous women marches and individual efforts to raise awareness on women's voting issues. Her suffrage marches and wagon trips included a protest march from New York City to Albany, another through Ohio, numerous tours through Long Island in a yellow "Votes for Women" wagon, and a New York to Boston wagon trip and march.

General Jones's most publicized march—from New York City to Washington, D.C.—ended on March 3, 1913, the day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. Her small band of suffrage "Pilgrims" joined the "Women's Rights Procession," which included 9 bands and 26 floats, and at least 5,000 marchers parading down Pennsylvania Avenue, led by women from countries that had enacted woman suffrage. This protest is not only known as the most effective demonstration for women's voting but also was instrumental in shifting the debate into a national issue, one that would need to be resolved by a constitutional amendment rather than state referenda. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com

(1886–1974) Regina's activism as a suffragist began in 1916 when she became a poll watcher for the New York Suffrage Association. In the fall of 1917 she accompanied her widowed step-grandmother, Wanda Juengling, to Washington, DC. Wanda had expressed a desire to visit the National Woman's Party headquarters and to participate in a protest march. Because of her age and health Wanda was turned down. Regina was persuaded to march in Wanda's place. On November 10, 1917, Regina was among a large picket group protesting the treatment of Alice Paul and other suffrage prisoners. She was one of thirty-one pickets arrested that day. She was sentenced to thirty days at the Occoquan Workhouse in Lorton, VA, but only served one week. She also participated in the "Watchfires of Freedom" protest in 1919.

Regina continued her social activism throughout her life. In 1922 she accompanied Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, on a tour overseas to learn about European birth control methods. In 1924 Regina ran for US Congress in the 42nd district of New York on the Socialist ticket "because a woman's name should be on the ticket." She received 2,778 votes to the winner's total of 28,152.

Regina cared for her elderly parents and spent the remainder of her life writing numerous articles, which were never published. She wrote to everyone and anyone calling for a revision of the language in the Declaration of Independence from "All MEN are created equal" to "All men and WOMEN are created equal." *courtesy alexanderstreet.com

(1873–1952) Frances attended Cornell Law School, a rarity in the late 19th century. After graduating in 1897, she became involved in the growing Progressive movement, with a special focus in immigration and crime, which were controversial topics of the era. Frances believed that crime was the product not of one's nature but of one's circumstance, pushing against the prevailing beliefs of the time that suggested immigrants - especially those from Southern and Eastern Europe - were more prone to criminality. She worked on immigration issues for New York State, and became the President of the National Americanization Committee, dedicated to instilling American ideals in immigrants as a method of reducing crime and poverty. She also focused on the plight of African Americans, increasingly moving to northern cities during the early decades of the 1900s in what has come to be called the First Great Migration.

Frances attempted to create a better safety net for African Americans, and especially African American women, in the difficult transition to northern, urban living. In 1911, the organization she founded—the Inter-Municipal League for Household Research—formed with other agencies to become the National Urban League, a well-known social justice, social reform, and civil rights organization.

Active in Progressive politics, Frances participated in Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 campaign for President, arguing in favor of suffrage for women. She played a similar role in Charles Evans Hughes' 1916 campaign, leading a controversial train tour in support of the candidate. By the early 1920s, she had begun working in areas of international policy. She authored a study on the League of Nations' ability to adjudicate conflict, and became heavily involved in the process of arbitration and conflict management, helping to form the American Arbitration Association (AAA), still in existence today. Later in her life, she turned away from her earlier Americanization beliefs, seeing them as paternalistic, and began to promote the concept of the 'International Human Being'. She was a labor advocate, pushing for clean workspaces and better worker treatment, and was also a transformative force in women's sports, having been involved in rowing and basketball from her time as a college student. Frances—who changed her name from Alice while in law school—is believed to have been transgender, often dressing in manners more typically male at the time; she claimed to often be shunned for her male style of dress and hair. She carried on a long, most likely romantic, relationship with the social reformer Mary Dreier, with whom she lived starting in 1905.

(1858–1945) Delia graduated from Rochester Business School, moved to Mendon, NY where she initially took a job as a secretary and bookkeeper at a local mill. She remained in the milling business and ultimately advanced to form a partnership with Roscoe and Samuel Tomkinson. The firm of Tomkinson, Kenyon and Tomkinson (TK&T) leased a mill on North Main Street. Although the mill had its difficulties (it burned down in 1901 and the inside had to be rebuilt), by the First World War, TK&T was exporting flour to France.

In addition to her flourishing business, Kenyon was involved in a variety of community activities. She was a long-term member of the Honeoye Falls School Board. She helped to establish the Mendon Public Library and served as the president of its governing board.

Delia's commitment to women’s rights is evidenced in the role she played in the Fortnightly Club, circa Feb. 19, 1913. The club, a women’s group established with the purpose of the advancement of women in Honeoye Falls, was formed over one hundred years ago and remains in existence. Delia was instrumental in organizing the Club, and acted as its President.

By1914 both the New York State Grange and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had endorsed the cause of women’s suffrage. A glance at the program for March 31, 1915, a year in which Delia served as President, shows the club’s concern for women’s issues. “The Benefits of Equal Suffrage” was discussed, and women also spoke and heard about “Clara Barton and the Red Cross,” (Barton being a known suffragist) the “Growth of Temperance,” and “The Grange.” The program concluded with a “Roll Call of Women Reformers.”

(1888–1972) Dorothy was a New York attorney, judge, feminist and political activist who worked and fought in support of civil liberties. She was a charismatic speaker and she regularly travelled throughout the U.S. lecturing about civil liberties. During the era of McCarthyite persecution, she was falsely accused of being affiliated with 28 communist front organizations.

Dorothy graduated from Horace Mann School in 1904, and studied economics and history at Smith College, graduating in 1908. In reflection Dorothy felt that she "misspent" the years 1908 to 1913 as a "social butterfly." After spending a year in Mexico and observing poverty and injustice at a close range, she decided to focus on social activism. She graduated from New York University School of Law in 1917, one of just a handful of U.S. law schools enlightened enough to enroll women.

Dorothy gained national prominence as a feminist activist in 1938 when she was named the U.S. representative to the League of Nations Committee for the Study of the Status of Women, a group of seven lawyers charged with studying women's legal status internationally.

Although World War II interrupted the committee's work and it was never completed, Dorothy resumed her commitment to improving women's status around the world through her work as the U.S. delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from 1946–1950.

Dorothy had lengthy and intense romantic relationships with various men throughout her adult life. Fiercely independent, she made a conscious decision not to marry. She participated in various aspects of President Johnson's War on Poverty and at age 80, she worked tirelessly and almost single-handedly to establish legal services for the poor on the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

A 2018 article in The Washington Post ran with the headline "Ruth Ruth Bader Ginsburg was inspired by a forgotten female trailblazer"; referring to Dorothy Kenyon.

(1855–1942) A missionary and humanitarian with the American Medical Missionaries during the persecution of Armenians during the Hamidian Massacre in Turkey, Grace arrived at Vassar College in 1896 to serve as assistant physician. She left after four years. In addition to her private practice, Grace was the head of the Poughkeepsie YWCA for 41 years. In 1917, as part of the YWCA, she was involved in the creation of the local "League for Women's Service” that supported the war effort. She was the only woman in the state to lead a county's Military Census. She was a member of the Dutchess County Defense Council. In 1909, Grace attended a pro-suffrage meeting in Poughkeepsie and emerged as a visible leader as reported in the Poughkeepsie Eagle News.

(1858–1944) Born in Rome, NY, Pauline was an active member of Trinity Church and a charter member of the church's Women’s Auxiliary.

Pauline was a charter member and the first President of the Lewis County Historical Society. She was an active member of the Lewis County League for Women’s Suffrage and served as treasurer in 1914. In 1923, Pauline was Lowville’s delegate to the annual convention of the Northern New York Federation of Women’s Clubs. Pauline's daughter Mary followed in her mother's footsteps working alongside her and becoming an active member of the suffrage movement in her own right.

(1883–1968) Mary was born in Lowville, NY to Dr. Cyril P. Kirley and Pauline Wood. After graduating from Vassar College, Mary returned home and joined several community organizations, working alongside her mother. She was an active member of the suffrage movement, and she became President of the Lowville Suffrage Club in 1914.

If you know more about Mary, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information.

(1870–1918) Alice served as the vice-president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Chemung County during the 1917 campaign. She was the founder of the Women's League for Good Government and served as president of the Elmira Women's Civic League. Both she and her husband, District Attorney Wilmot E. Knapp, were involved in the temperance movement.

During the 1918 campaign to turn Elmira dry, Alice's efforts to organize the city's women in favor of the measure proved instrumental in the law's passage. At the time of her unexpected death in 1918, she was being considered for Police Commissioner.

(1868–1932) James married Harriet Burton Laidlaw, who was an active in women's rights. He became involved and went on to being president of the New York State Men's League for Women Suffrage from 1910 to 1920. James then went on to become president of the National Men's League.

(1873–1949) Harriet was a suffragist, reformer, and educator. As an early proponent of women's suffrage, she later became a director of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in which she and other suffragists helped persuade President Theodore Roosevelt to lend support for their cause.

After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Harriet promoted the United States membership into the League of Nations and the eventual creation of the United Nations. In addition, she was a crusader against white enslavement and coerced prostitution among white and Chinese women in New York.

(–1920) Mary was a member of the Women's Political Union. That organization was founded by Harriet Stanton Blanche in 1906. It was also known as the Equality League for Self-Supporting Women. Their goal was to engage the support of women in wage-supporting occupations. During the great campaign of 1915, the Union was always looking for new ways to draw attention to the amendment. One of the ways was to gain the support of the Catholic clergy. The Saint Catherine Association of Catholic Women (founded by Sarah McPike) was a key part of the Catholic initiative. 500 Catholic women marched in the last suffrage parade in New York City in 1917. Mary was among a group of women who were cited for unceasingly writing and speaking up. Source: History of Womens Suffrage. Vol. 6.

(1861–1910) Pittsford residents worked actively to win women the right to vote. The Monroe County Mail on September 19, 1901 described how at a meeting of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Gertrude Wilmarth Lash “... spoke in the interest of the Political Equality Club, with the object of starting a club in Pittsford among members of the W.C.T.U.”

The Club had its first meeting on September 6, 1902. Like so many who worked for suffrage, many of the founding members never lived to see women vote; including Gertrude, who in addition to her political work, was a mother of eight children.
(courtesy of www.townofpittsford.org/19thAcentennial/ppec-founders)

(1864–1946) Maria was an African-American woman who was active in the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. She was one of the most active African American women of her day in the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) at the local, state, and national levels.

Maria was a brilliant organizer. In 1912, she was appointed state organizer for the NACWC. She served as the president of the Empire State Federation, the umbrella organization of New York State African-American women's groups, from 1916 to 1929, and as national chairperson of the NACW Program and Literature Committee from 1926 to 1929. As a testament to her leadership, the affiliate of the Empire State Federation in the Albany region, the M.C. Lawton Club, was founded in her honor in 1919.

In 1914, Maria was designated by Governor Martin H. Glynn of New York to represent the state at the National Negro Educational Congress meetings in Oklahoma City and St. Louis. After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Maria became an active member of the New York Republican Party, hosting teas and luncheons at her home on Willoughby Street for local and state leaders in the Republican Party. In 1924, she was appointed director of the eastern division of the Republican National Convention and endorsed the nomination and election of Calvin Coolidge. Additionally, Maria became active in the labor movement in the 1920s, representing the women of New York State at the Labor Conference of Women in Washington, D.C. in 1924. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com

(1876–1947) Helen was the legislative chairwoman of the New York State Suffrage Party. Due to her brilliant legislative work, she was key to the 1917 passage of the New York State women's suffrage law. She was also director of the Women's Land Army of New York State and Onondaga County, whose goal was to establish labor and living standards for women farm workers (known as farmerettes). Later in life, Helen became the New York Tribune's Assistant Advertising Director.

(1900–1967) Catherine was the first woman to be named partner in a major Wall Street law firm - and was notably one of the original twelve women to be admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1937.

She remained an active Partner in in Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, in downtown Manhattan, until her death.

If you know more about Catherine, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information.

(1867–1923) Louise was a supporter of woman suffrage in N.Y. State. In February 1910, Louise attended a mass meeting in Albany put on by the New York Suffrage Association and the Equal Franchise Society. Lawmakers and prominent officials were invited to the meeting to hear arguments for woman suffrage. Louise was noted as having gone to Albany to call on lawmakers and to speak to representatives from her district regarding supporting woman suffrage.

Louise was listed as serving as chairman of finance for the Empire State Committee, a suffrage campaign committee organized in November 1913 and composed of representatives from several active N.Y. societies, including the State Suffrage Association, Woman Suffrage Party of New York City, and the Equal Franchise Society. Louise was in attendance at a March 1916 ball of the New York State Suffrage Party, having taken a box for the ball at Madison Square Garden. She was also a member of the League for Political Education, founded in November 1894 with the purpose of promoting good citizenship, social justice, and general intelligence. In 1919, it is noted that the league had 4,000 members, including 700 public school teachers, and that lectures were attended mainly by women. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com

(1887–1919) born in New Orleans, Miriam was an author, editor and publisher. Married four times along with several romantic relationships, Miriam was a socialite and world traveler. Her greatest accomplishment was rescuing her late husband's publishing company from bankruptcy. Under her leadership, Frank Leslie Publishing was a successful enterprise, earning her the title "Empress of Journalism".

In her will, Miriam left a bequest of two million dollars to Carrie Chapman Catt to support the suffrage movement. The generous legacy established the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission and the publishing of "The Woman Citizen" newspaper; a fitting tribute to Miriam's accomplishments in the publishing world.