Crowdsourcing at the Library of Congress: Summer suffrage challenge kick-off!

By the People Bulletin

 

Join our Cause! Support the Summer of Suffrage 

This summer we have a challenge for you: complete the ~3,000 pages left in the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) campaign! Volunteers have finished transcribing these pages but we need help with review, the crucial final step in the process. If you're new to transcription review, check out our guide. Within the NAWSA pages, you'll find the organizational and personal histories of the suffrage movement. And you can follow along by the numbers on History Hub to see how much progress we've made in reviewing this collection! 

The National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1890 by the merger of two suffrage organizations, both of which originated in a volatile disagreement in 1869. In the 1890s, NAWSA’s influence reached across the country, contributing to suffrage victories in the western states. By the early twentieth century, new leaders, including Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw, emerged and suffragists devised innovative tactics in the struggle for the right to vote, including suffrage parades and open-air meetings. By reviewing these materials, you will discover NAWSA's multifaceted history, including the activities of precursor organizations involved in the abolition and women's rights movements, state and federal campaigns for women's suffrage, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and international women's suffrage organizing.

Suffrage Spotlight: Suffrage Schools 

In the early 20th-century, NAWSA and its state chapters held "suffrage schools" across the country. Suffrage leaders toured the country from Michigan to Louisiana training women on public speaking, suffrage history, fundraising, and how to craft a persuasive argument. One suffrage school held in Portland, ME assigned its students to write a news story as part of a class on publicity methods. The best story was then published in the local newspaper! The classes not only offered women an chance to develop important organizational skills but also connected them to one another and to the national suffrage effort. During the school held in Meridian, MS in February 1917, women volunteered to lead suffrage efforts in their own ward in the city. These sessions helped to strengthen the local movement in Meridian. 

Within the NAWSA collection is a scrapbook of articles clipped from papers all over the nation about these suffrage schools. Volunteers have finished transcribing these articles but we need your help to review! 

Participate, get a postcard! 

Would you like a By the People suffrage postcard? Email us at crowd@loc.gov with your favorite suffrage fact or discovery from the NAWSA campaign and your address. The team will mail you a postcard to say thanks! 

 

Onward and upward,

Abby & the By the People team