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Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence
A richly illustrated history of women's suffrage in the United States that highlights underrecognized activists
Marking the centenary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Votes for Women is the first richly illustrated book to reveal the history and complexity of the national suffrage movement. For nearly a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century onward, countless American women fought for the right to vote. While some of the leading figures of the suffrage movement have received deserved appreciation, the crusade for women's enfranchisement involved many individuals, each with a unique story to be told. Weaving together a diverse collection of portraits and other visual materials--including photographs, drawings, paintings, prints, textiles, and mixed media--along with biographical narratives and trenchant essays, this comprehensive book presents fresh perspectives on the history of the movement.
Bringing attention to underrecognized individuals and groups, the leading historians featured here look at how suffragists used portraiture to promote gender equality and other feminist ideals, and how photographic portraits in particular proved to be a crucial element of women's activism and recruitment. The contributors also explore the reasons why certain events and leaders of the suffrage movement have been remembered over others, the obstacles that black women faced when organizing with white suffragists and the subsequent founding of black women's suffrage groups, the foundations of the violent antisuffrage movement, and the ways suffragists held up American women physicians who served in France during World War I as exemplary citizens, deserving the right to vote.
With nearly 200 color illustrations, Votes for Women offers a more complete picture of American women's suffrage, one that sheds new light on the movement's relevance for our own time.
Published in association with the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Exhibition Schedule
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
March 1, 2019-January 5, 2020
Marking the centenary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Votes for Women is the first richly illustrated book to reveal the history and complexity of the national suffrage movement. For nearly a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century onward, countless American women fought for the right to vote. While some of the leading figures of the suffrage movement have received deserved appreciation, the crusade for women's enfranchisement involved many individuals, each with a unique story to be told. Weaving together a diverse collection of portraits and other visual materials--including photographs, drawings, paintings, prints, textiles, and mixed media--along with biographical narratives and trenchant essays, this comprehensive book presents fresh perspectives on the history of the movement.
Bringing attention to underrecognized individuals and groups, the leading historians featured here look at how suffragists used portraiture to promote gender equality and other feminist ideals, and how photographic portraits in particular proved to be a crucial element of women's activism and recruitment. The contributors also explore the reasons why certain events and leaders of the suffrage movement have been remembered over others, the obstacles that black women faced when organizing with white suffragists and the subsequent founding of black women's suffrage groups, the foundations of the violent antisuffrage movement, and the ways suffragists held up American women physicians who served in France during World War I as exemplary citizens, deserving the right to vote.
With nearly 200 color illustrations, Votes for Women offers a more complete picture of American women's suffrage, one that sheds new light on the movement's relevance for our own time.
Published in association with the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Exhibition Schedule
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
March 1, 2019-January 5, 2020
304 pages, Hardcover
Published March 26, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 23, 2019
Dr. Kate Clarke Lemay, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery, has put together a portable museum of the Women's Suffrage Movement in 'Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence.' The result is nothing short of breathtaking. This book is a triumph: wonderfully written, beautifully presented, and easily accessible. Any student or teacher of US history will be grateful they added this book to their library.
The brilliance behind 'Votes for Women' rests in its layout, which Dr. Lemay and Princeton University Press deserve full praise for. In addition to being a large, fully-illustrated text that is comfortable to hold despite its size and weight, the decision to have it open with four essays on different aspects of Women's Suffrage in the US (Seneca Falls, Black Women's history, organization, and the First World War) permits readers to digest its history through two routes: by subject or though the chronological history Dr. Lemay provides for the text. Both avenues are excellent, and the availability of both options make the book easier to read, absorb, and—quite helpfully—to assign as readings. As someone who has taught Women's Suffrage, I highly recommend this book for use in class.
I also could not be more satisfied with the images and accompanying documents chosen for this text. They are not merely visuals: each are essential artifacts as inseparable from their subject as videos or photographs to a Ken Burns documentary. With every political cartoon illustrated in the book's large pages, many details that otherwise would have been lost to readers are beautifully displayed, which also makes this book a gateway to its subject for younger or more casual readers: a boon for any academic tests.
'Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence' is a masterwork that should be required reading for students and teachers of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the United States. It belongs in classrooms, libraries, and living rooms throughout the country for its immersive education on a subject as important now as it has ever been. Five stars. Please get it.
The brilliance behind 'Votes for Women' rests in its layout, which Dr. Lemay and Princeton University Press deserve full praise for. In addition to being a large, fully-illustrated text that is comfortable to hold despite its size and weight, the decision to have it open with four essays on different aspects of Women's Suffrage in the US (Seneca Falls, Black Women's history, organization, and the First World War) permits readers to digest its history through two routes: by subject or though the chronological history Dr. Lemay provides for the text. Both avenues are excellent, and the availability of both options make the book easier to read, absorb, and—quite helpfully—to assign as readings. As someone who has taught Women's Suffrage, I highly recommend this book for use in class.
I also could not be more satisfied with the images and accompanying documents chosen for this text. They are not merely visuals: each are essential artifacts as inseparable from their subject as videos or photographs to a Ken Burns documentary. With every political cartoon illustrated in the book's large pages, many details that otherwise would have been lost to readers are beautifully displayed, which also makes this book a gateway to its subject for younger or more casual readers: a boon for any academic tests.
'Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence' is a masterwork that should be required reading for students and teachers of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the United States. It belongs in classrooms, libraries, and living rooms throughout the country for its immersive education on a subject as important now as it has ever been. Five stars. Please get it.
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January 5, 2020This book has more content about BIPOC women in suffrage and women's rights movements than any other book I've ever read about suffrage--and I've read a lot.
November 24, 2020
Wider view of the suffrage movement, with more inclusion of the roles played by women of color, with objects from a National Portrait Galley exhibition.
November 11, 2025
4.25 ⭐️
October 1, 2020
”In writing this book to help commemorate the enfranchisement of American women, it has been important to think about whom we remember and why. Today, more than ever, it is critical to consider whose stories have been forgotten or overlooked, and whose have not been deemed worthy to record.”
A zillion years ago, long before CORVID, I walked through an exhibit on the 19th amendment at the National Portrait Gallery. This book gave me the opportunity to revisit that exhibit. It also introduced me to some new ideas about the women who fought for women’s right to suffrage. Also I learned a lot about the antis – who knew there were women who didn’t want the right to vote? (I guess I knew that, but it seems strange to me.)
I am afraid this book will end up on the shelves of libraries and most people will never see it. The 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment happened this past August and we couldn’t celebrate as we would have liked. More people should pay attention to the fight for the right to vote. It has taken us so long to extend this right to most Americans and unfortunately it is clear that suffrage is not to be taken for granted.
The information in this volume is invaluable and I wish more people would see it.
A zillion years ago, long before CORVID, I walked through an exhibit on the 19th amendment at the National Portrait Gallery. This book gave me the opportunity to revisit that exhibit. It also introduced me to some new ideas about the women who fought for women’s right to suffrage. Also I learned a lot about the antis – who knew there were women who didn’t want the right to vote? (I guess I knew that, but it seems strange to me.)
I am afraid this book will end up on the shelves of libraries and most people will never see it. The 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment happened this past August and we couldn’t celebrate as we would have liked. More people should pay attention to the fight for the right to vote. It has taken us so long to extend this right to most Americans and unfortunately it is clear that suffrage is not to be taken for granted.
The information in this volume is invaluable and I wish more people would see it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews