This bibliography is specifically designed to reflect the resources available in Duke University Libraries. For those of you visiting this page who do not have access to Duke Libraries, you will probably find many of the published sources listed here in your local public, college or university libraries. Also, you may find that many of the search strategies and lists of individuals and organizations will also be relevant for researching this topic in your home libraries. If you need further assistance, Duke students can contact the Women's Studies Reference Archivist. For others it may be more useful to enlist the help of your local reference librarian.
Searching the Catalogs
In the Duke Library System, the catalog is split between a card catalog and an on-line catalog. For information on the women's suffrage movement in America, you will do best if you search both the card and on-line catalogs.
When searching in the card catalog, you need to use standard Library of Congress Subject Headings. Try the ones listed below. These will also work in a Subject Search in the Duke on-line catalog:
- Women--Suffrage--United States
- Suffragettes--United States
- Women's rights--United States
- Woman Suffrage--United States
When using the on-line catalog, a Keyword Search may be more powerful and accurate than a subject search. Try using the following keywords:
- Afro-Americans and Suffrage and Women
- Women and Vote
- National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company
- Anti-suffrage
- Suffrage and Opposed
Tip: The difference between womEn and womAn can be critical.
Individuals
This is a starter list of some key players involved in the Suffrage Movement. You may want to search the on-line and card catalogs for books written by or about them.
- Lucy Stone
- Sojourner Truth
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Alice Paul
- Carrie Chapman Catt
- Mary Church Terrell
- Susan B. Anthony
- Anna Howard Shaw
- Lucretia Mott
- Matilda Joslyn Gage
Organizations
Here are some activist groups prominent during the Suffrage Movement. You may want to search Duke's on-line catalog and card catalog for books written by or about them.
- National American Woman Suffrage Association
- Seneca Falls (NY) Convention (1848)
- 19th Constitutional Amendment
- National Woman's Party
- (state) Associations Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage
- Equal Suffrage Association
- Anti-Suffrage Association
- The Woman's Bible
Journals and Newsletters
Mainly publications produced by the above organizations. All of these titles are available at Duke. Specific dates and locations of materials in the library system are listed on the on-line catalog.
- The Woman's Journal
- The Woman's Journal and Suffrage News
- The Woman Citizen: Official Organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
- Woman Suffrage Leaflet
- The Woman Patriot (anti-suffrage)
Secondary Sources
Here are a few basic books about the suffrage movement that may give you an overview and identify individuals, organizations, key issues and dates. Be sure to search the on-line catalog and card catalog for additional publications.
- Lunardini, Christine A. From equal suffrage to equal rights : Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, 1910-1928. New York University Press, 1986.
- The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony reader: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches. Northeastern University Press, c1992.
- The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from the Classic work of Stanton, Anthony, Gage, and Harper. University of Illinois Press, c1978.
- Willie Mae Coleman. Keeping the Faith and Disturbing the Peace: Black Women, From Anti-Slavery to Women's Suffrage.
- History of woman suffrage. Ayer Co., 1985. CALL NUMBER Perkins 324.623 H673, 1985
- Beeton, Beverly. Women Vote in the West : the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1869-1896. New York : Garland Pub., 1986.
- Sheppard, Alice. Cartooning for suffrage. University of New Mexico Press, c1994.
- A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910. edited by Martha M. Solomon. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1991.
- Scott, Anne Firor. One Half the People: The Fight for Woman Suffrage. Lippincott, [1975].
- Gurko, Miriam. The Ladies of Seneca Falls; The Birth of the Woman's Rights Movement. Macmillan [c1974]
- Giele, Janet Zollinger. Two Paths to Women's Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism. Twayne Publishers, 1995.
- Camhi, Jane Jerome. Women Against Women: American Anti-Suffragism, 1880-1920. Carlson Pub., 1994.
- Jablonsky, Thomas J. The Home, Heaven, and Mother Party: Female Anti-Suffragists in the United States, 1868-1920. Carlson Pub., 1994.
- Sims, Anastatia. The Power of Femininity in the New South: Women's Organizations and Politics in North Carolina, 1880-1930. University of South Carolina Press, 1997.
Manuscript Collections in the Rubenstein Library
These are original diaries and letters of individuals. More information about the collections listed below (and other collections containing documenting the suffrage movement) can be found in the on-line catalog or in the Manuscripts Card Catalog which is located in room 103 Perkins.
- Southgate Jones Family Papers.
- Mattie Logan Southgate Jones was the president of the Durham Equal Suffrage League and Chair of the 5th District of the Equal Suffrage Association of NC.
- Mary Cowper Papers.
- Collection documents Cowper's life as an active suffragist and as instrumental in the formation and early years of the NC League of Women Voters.
- William Watts Ball Papers.
- Prominent SC newspaper editor intimately associated with a range of public affairs including the legislation around suffrage in SC. Papers include several letters from the National Women's Party and copies of his addresses on the subject.
- Bedinger-Dandridge Family Papers.
- Correspondence and papers, esp. 1915-1916, of Caroline Dansk Dandridge and her daughter, Serena Dandridge reflect their active interest in suffrage and include minutes of a West VA Equal Suffrage Association meeting.
- Clement Claiborne Clay Papers.
- Collection includes the addresses and writings of Virginia Clay-Clopton who was an outspoken suffragist and member of the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association.
- George Gifford Papers.
- Gifford was a journalist and politician. His papers includes several letters (some from Lucy Stone) during the 1860s and 70s and a pamphlet on the woman suffrage mass convention in Augusta Maine, 1874.
- Hemphill Family Papers.
- The Hemphill men were public figures (minister, editor, politician) and the women were involved in a variety of social organizations. Collection includes several letters (including one from Alice Stone Blackwell) re: woman suffrage from 1894-1910 and several printed items from 1889-1907.
- Stanley S. Wohl Papers.
- Collection includes letters from and photographs of Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone.
- Matilda Young Papers.
- Papers of Alva Belmont's traveling companion includes a memoir by Belmont who was a nationally known suffragist.
Manuscript Collections on Microfilm
These are materials are located in the Newspapers and Microfilm Department, which is on the basement level of Perkins Library.
- The Papers of Carrie Chapman Catt. CALL NUMBER: M5229s
- The Papers of Mary Church Terrell. CALL NUMBER: N5045
- The Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony CALL NUMBER: M6761
- Women's Studies Manuscript Collections from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College. Series 1. Women's Suffrage pt.C: the South. CALL NUMBER: M6667
- The Papers of the Blackwell family. Call number: N5042
Published Primary Sources
Sources that were written and published during the fight for the right to vote can often be considered primary sources. Some examples are listed below.
- National American Woman Suffrage Association. Handbook and Proceedings of the Annual Convention, 16th-52nd, 1884-1921.
- Alabama woman ridicules idea that suffrage amendment would give vote to Negro women. [Birmingham, Ala. : Alabama Equal Suffrage Association, 1919?] Rubenstein Library Broadside F-129
- Why the home makers do not want to vote. Illinois Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women. [Chicago, Illinois, n.d.]
- United States. Congress. House. Committee on Woman Suffrage. Extending the right of suffrage to women : hearings before the Committee on Woman Suffrage, House of Representatives, Sixty-fifth Congress. Govt. Print. Off., 1918. Perkins Docs US Docs Y4.W84:W84/13
- The woman voter of North Carolina : where she votes and where she does not!: a state-wide survey of official presidential and congressional vote cast in the November election, 1916, before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, and official presidential and congressional vote cast in November election, 1920, after the enfranchisement of women : congressional vote of 1918 and 1922. compiled by Mary Henderson. [Raleigh, N.C.] : North Carolina Democratic Executive Committee, [1924?] Perkins Pamphlet Collection 40956
- How it feels to be the husband of a suffragette, by him; illustrations by May Wilson Preston. New York, George H. Doran company, [c1915].
- Hubbard, Benjamin Vestal. Socialism, Feminism, and Suffragism, the Terrible Triplets, Connected by the Same Umbilical Cord, and Fed From the Same Nursing...American publishing company [c1915] Rubenstein Library E #1 3936
- Miller, Alice Duer. Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times. George H. Doran [c1915].
Public Documents: Legislative and Legal Issues
The suffrage movement was highly political and involved legislation on the state and national levels. The Public Documents Department, located on the basement level of Perkins Library, is the place to find texts of speeches given before state legislatures, congressional hearings, passage of bills and amendments. Some of these materials may be listed in the Duke on-line catalog, but it would be wise to enlist the help of a public documents librarian.
Compiled by Ginny Daley
9/95, rev 6/96