Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911
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Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter Anne Fitzhugh Miller founded the Geneva Political Equality Club in 1897. The Millers were wealthy New York residents, descendants of the noted abolitionist Gerrit Smith, Elizabeth Smith Miller’s father. The Millers assembled seven large scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, broadsides, letters, program announcements, and other memorabilia documenting the Geneva Political Equality Club and the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA). These scrapbooks, which make up the Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911, also contain ephemera relating to state, national, and international efforts to achieve woman suffrage. Although the collection primarily documents the work of upper and middle class leadership of the association and the women’s club movement of the Progressive Era in American history, some sections in the scrapbooks relate to the efforts of working class women. Opposition to woman suffrage in the United States grew more vocal during this period. The scrapbooks include articles and reports reflecting the views of prominent opponents along with letters and articles confronting their assertions.
News clippings in The Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks focus on a brief period at the turn –of –the century when the struggle for woman suffrage was at a crucial point. By 1915, women in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Australia, and New Zealand had won full suffrage, and several other nations granted women the right to vote in local elections. In the United States, women had achieved the vote in several Western states but had not been able to obtain full suffrage in populous Eastern states. In some states, women had managed to obtain the right to vote in school board elections and on local economic issues. Many of the news clippings in the scrapbooks relate the problems of obtaining full suffrage in New York, where some of the larger cities of the state permitted women limited suffrage.
The letters, articles, and memorabilia in the collection provide insight into the dedication and persistence of members of the movement in their goal to achieve the vote. This collection, along with other related collections on the suffrage movement in American Memory, adds new dimensions to the understanding of the movement.
The Women’s Club Movement
After the Civil War and up to World War II, the Women’s Club Movement was an important part of the social and political landscape in the United States. At that time, few women were able to go to college; clubs, with annual study plans, offered an opportunity for ongoing education. Clubs also offered an outlet for women’s interests in improving their communities through social and legal reform. Some clubs had both male and female members, although women were the driving forces behind club activities.
The Geneva Political Equality Club, led for many years by Elizabeth Smith Miller and Anne Fitzhugh Miller, was an example of such a club:
The Geneva Political Equality Club is, as its name implies, not a social but a political organization and welcomes members from all ranks, trades and professions. Its list of active members includes the names of mechanics, physicians, lawyers, clergymen, bankers and literary men; while among the women enrolled there are practicing physicians, trained nurses, teachers and clerks connected with various business houses. Membership is acquired by signing the constitution and the payment of the yearly fee of 50 cents. The club has introduced to the people of Geneva many eminent speakers (over fifty in less than five years) including some from foreign parts. … The last meeting of each year, called the Piazza Party is held at the home of the President, where, on the broad verandas of the spacious mansion, the sight of lawn and garden and grove and the sparkling waves of the blue Seneca Lake delights the eye, music charms the ear, and the crowning pleasure of the day is always a talk from some interesting speaker.
From “A Notable Club”
Read the newspaper articles about the formation of the Geneva Political Equality Club in Scrapbook 1897-1904 (pages 18-20). Based on the articles and the excerpt above, answer the following questions:
- What was the purpose of the Geneva Political Equality Club?
- What were the requirements for membership in the Geneva Political Equality Club? What can you deduce about the members of the club from the article?
- What was the primary focus of the speeches given at the first meeting? Based on the reasons for creating the club and the focus of the first meeting, make a list of topics that might have been covered at meetings of the club in its first year. Search the Scrapbook to see if your predictions were correct.
During the years covered in the scrapbooks, the Geneva Political Equality Club heard speeches on an array of topics. Read the report of Mrs. Maud Gillespie’s presentation to the Geneva Political Equality Club on the topic “Our Working Women.”
- Why were women encouraged to work outside the home?
- According to Mrs. Gillespie, what accounted for the shifting attitudes toward women in the work force?
- How did she describe the working conditions for women in the shirt waist factories of New England? Compare these conditions with those in Scotland described by A. Mason Brown in a letter to the editor of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, January 21, 1909. How did Mrs. Gillespie and Mr. Brown link conditions for working women with the issue of women’s suffrage?which is it, woman or women’s suffrage? I think woman suffrage, as used above, sounds very awkward
- What responsibility did Mrs. Gillespie say that women who did not work had toward those who did? Do you think this principle has any applicability today? Explain your answer.
- Find and read an account of another speech given at the Geneva Political Equality Club. Write a brief summary of the main ideas conveyed in the speech and explain how those ideas might still be important in today’s world.
A newspaper clipping described the Geneva Political Equality Club’s annual “Piazza Party” at Lochland in May 1903. Mrs. Florence Perkins Gilman was the featured speaker at what the newspaper called “A Politico-Social Event”:
The Political Equality Club’s annual plaza party was held Monday afternoon at Lochland, Miss Anne F. Miller’s beautiful home. Ladies from many neighboring towns were present, and with the large Geneva assemblage filled the spacious house and piazzas, and enjoyed one of the best times in the club’s history. Several of Geneva’s very accomplished musicians made that part of the program most delightful, and Mrs. Florence Perkins Gilman’s address on, Why Woman Should Want to Vote was exceptionally bright and convincing. . . . Refreshments and sociability on the broad flower decked piazzas completed the pleasant affair.
From: “Charlotte Perkins Gilman Speaks at Geneva Political Equality Club Piazza Party”
Search for additional articles on the annual piazza parties at the Miller’s home, Lochland. Read the articles and answer the questions that follow.
- From the newspaper reports, would you say that the parties were more “politico” or more “social”?
- What do you think the purpose of the annual piazza party was? Can you think of events with similar purposes today?
- Based on the newspaper accounts of the gatherings, can you draw any conclusions about whether the club drew members from “all ranks, trades and professions”? Explain.
Statewide organizations such as the New York State Woman Suffrage Association relied on the local women’s clubs as an essential element of their efforts. In 1903, the state organization wrote to all local presidents, asking them to try to take several actions. What did the state association ask the local presidents to do? What inducements did the state association offer? Why do you think strong local clubs were important to the state association?