Suffrage Resources

Explore the history of the Women's Suffrage Movement with these resources! The achievements of the Women's Suffrage Movement represent the collective efforts of countless individuals and organizations. In fact, the Valiant Visionaries of the Vote trading card collection shares only a fraction of the people, places, and events that contributed to the suffrage movement. Please consult the lists below to learn more about the local, state, and national history of the Women's Suffrage Movement.

If there are any additional resources that you are aware of and would like to be included on the list, please contact us via the contact form.

Local

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History represents contributions from academic scholars and historians to the interpretation and understanding of the history of Greater Cleveland. On this site, you can search for articles and images related to prominent woman figures in the Western Reserve, including Florence Allen and Elizabeth Hauser, as well as suffrage-related organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Cleveland and American Woman's Suffrage Association (AWSA).

Through Chronicling America, patrons can search America's historic newspapers between 1789-1963. Included in this digitization initiative is the Anti-Slavery Bugle, a publication of the Western Anti-Slavery Society in Lisbon and Salem, Ohio. Though the paper's main mission was to admonish slavery, it published letters and speeches, including Sojourner Truth's 1851 "Ain't I a Woman" speech, along with calls-for-meetings and editorials that supported equal suffrage.

Trumbull Memory Project | Warren-Trumbull County Library

The Trumbull Memory Project is an online archive of photographs, postcards, illustrations, and documents that celebrate the history of Trumbull County, Ohio. The project documents the history of Warren and Trumbull County, its industries, schools, landmarks, and people, dating from the Civil War era to the present.

State

Ohio Women Vote: 100 Years of Change | Ohio History Connection

August 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted many women the right to vote. This major victory was only the beginning for women’s activism. To commemorate this anniversary, the Ohio History Connection built this exhibit meant to travel the state throughout 2020, which has been digitized in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ohio Women's Activism Blog Series | Ohio History Connection

The Ohio Women's Activism blog series was conceptualized by the Ohio History Connection to engage the greater community of the state to participate in the commemoration of the women's suffrage centennial. The blog features a guest contributor each month from October 2019 - October 2020. Brianna Treleven, OHSC '19 and previous Chair of the NE Ohio Suffrage Centennial Committee, contributed a blog post highlighting some of the local "valiant visionaries" that advocated for the vote.

Women's Voices, Women's Votes Blog | Ohio History Connection

The Women's Voices, Women's Votes blog post is part of a series within the greater Digital Collections Blog on Ohio Memory. This post was contributed by Lily Birkhimer, Digital Projects Coordinator at the Ohio History Connection, and features information about the statewide suffrage movement and the numerous suffrage-related collections that can be browsed on Ohio Memory, including manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, letters, and more.

Ohio Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission | Ohio Secretary of State Office

The Ohio Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission was created through Senate Bill 30, co-sponsored by Senators Stephanie Kunze and Sandra Williams, and signed by Governor DeWine in April 2019. The Commission oversees the statewide commemoration of the suffrage centennial, and their website shares information on upcoming events across various regions of Ohio.

Ohio Women's Hall of Fame | Ohio History Connection, State Archives

The Ohio Women's Hall of Fame was founded in 1978 to honor and recognize the outstanding contributions by Ohio's women throughout the state's history. Some prominent women that were involved in the Women's Suffrage Movement are among the inductees, including Harriet Taylor Upton, Betsey Mix Cowles, Elizabeth Hauser, and Frances Jennings Casement, among others.

Digital Women's Suffrage Collection | Ohio State University Libraries

The Ohio State University Libraries’ (OSUL) Rare Books & Manuscripts Library (RBML) has recently digitized materials from its Women’s Suffrage Collection. Users can explore nearly 40 postcards with pro- and anti-suffrage viewpoints, and two scrapbooks containing pamphlets, clippings, sheet music, and writings of prominent suffragists such as Carrie Chapman Catt, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and M. Carey Thomas.

National

StoryMap: Places of Women's Suffrage | National Park Service

The National Park Service, in concert with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, developed a digital StoryMap that allows you to virtually explore places related to women's suffrage and the 19th Amendment using GPS technology. The StoryMap has 54 slides with photographs, captions, and descriptions for women's suffrage locations across the United States.

Women's Vote Centennial | Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission

The Women's Vote Centennial is the official site of the national Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission passed by Congress in April 2017. On the website you can find a variety of resources, including Commission meeting minutes, reports to Congress, at-home family activities, and The Yellow Rose Journal with blog posts from Commissioners and women's suffrage experts.

National Votes for Women Trail | National Collaborative for Women's History

The National Votes for Women Trail was developed with the goal of documenting the campaign for women's suffrage over several decades by identifying the many sites that were integral to the movement. The Trail consists of an interactive map of the continental United States that can be filtered by historic building, organization, town/city, and more. Northeast Ohio is currently represented by nine historic sites.

The History of the Suffrage Movement | National Women's History Museum

The website of the National Women's History Museum has a section dedicated to the history of the women's suffrage movement, including various interactive articles on the movement timeline, the Seneca Falls Convention, western suffrage, and many more.

The Library of Congress has a vast array of digital collections pertaining to American women's history, including the Carrie Chapman Catt Papers, the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Mary Church Terrell Papers, and many more that provide insight into their lives and efforts towards the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Clio is a website and mobile app that acts as a guide to thousands of historical and cultural sites across the country. Individuals can curate entries or heritage trails for historical sites, museums, monuments, landmarks, and even "time capsules." Each entry offers turn-by-turn directions as well as links to relevant books, articles, videos, primary sources, and credible websites.

The National Archives celebrates the centennial of the 19th Amendment's ratification with the exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. The exhibition features 90+ items, including the original 19th Amendment, that tell the overlooked story behind this landmark moment in history. The exhibit can be viewed at the National Archives Museum, and featured records of the exhibit are available online, along with digital versions of the pop-up exhibit distributed to schools and cultural institutions across the U.S.

A special thanks to the student volunteer at Youngstown State University, Brian Pete, for assistance with compiling the resource list.