Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
The Women’s Suffrage in Vermont Collection documents Vermonters’ efforts to obtain voting rights for women. With contributions from the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, the Leahy Library at the Vermont Historical Society, and Silver Special Collections at the University of Vermont, the collection focuses on the period from 1870 to 1920.
The Women’s Suffrage in Vermont Collection include VESA annual meeting reports and correspondence, legislation, promotional materials such as broadsides and leaflets, and photographs.
HISTORY
In 1870, the Vermont Council of Censors proposed an amendment to the state constitution calling for full suffrage for women. A group of men formed the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association to support the amendment, which failed by a vote of 231 to 1 at the constitutional convention. Ten years later, taxpaying women did obtain the right to vote and hold office in school districts. The Vermont Woman Suffrage Association (VWSA) reorganized in 1884 and focused on achieving woman suffrage in municipal elections by introducing voting rights legislation, advocating in newspapers, and holding meetings and rallies with local and national speakers. The VWSA, which became the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association (VESA) in 1907, worked closely with the American Woman Suffrage Association, later the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anti-suffragists formed the Vermont Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in 1912, and by 1917, when the Vermont legislature passed a law that allowed taxpaying women to vote in local elections, the organization claimed over 5,000 members.
VESA continued to push for full suffrage, and came close in 1919 when the legislature passed a bill allowing women to vote in presidential elections. Governor Clement refused to sign the bill, and the House of Representatives upheld his veto. After Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919, VESA members campaigned vigorously to have the legislature consider state ratification, but Governor Clement refused to call a special session and the amendment was ratified in 1920 without Vermont’s support. With the right to vote obtained, VESA dissolved and the new Vermont League of Women Voters took on the task of educating Vermont women about civic responsibilities.
FURTHER READING
Clifford, Deborah P.
The Drive for Women's Municipal Suffrage in Vermont 1883-1917.
Vermont History 47, no. 3 (1979): 173-190.
Clifford, Deborah P.
An Invasion of Strong-Minded Women: The Newspapers and the Woman Suffrage Campaign in Vermont in 1870.
Vermont History 43, no. 1 (1975): 1-19.
Showing 61 - 70 of 73 Records
Lillian Herrick Olzendam to Marion Stone Pelley
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- Date Created: 1919-10-19
- Description: Olzendam updates Pelley on her plans to come to St. Johnsbury, requesting a car so she can visit legislators in outlying towns, and tells Pelley that Dr. Horton would like to discover who was the author of a recent editorial in the Burlington Free Press.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Lillian Herrick Olzendam to Frank G. Howland
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- Date Created: 1919-10-22
- Description: Olzendam clarifies for Washington County Senator Howland the expectations of the VESA for a special session, explaining that Howland was asked to head a legislative committee to ask the Governor for his conditions for calling a special session, that Howland stated he wanted to select his own committee members, and that the Governor's main objection to a special session was understood to be the expense to the State.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Frederick L. Webster to Lillian Herrick Olzendam
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- Date Created: 1919-10-20
- Description: Representative Webster of Swanton responds to Olzendam's request for his signature of support, saying that he prefers not to urge the Governor to call a special session, as "the matter is up to him to decide." [Response is written on bottom of original request from Olzendam]
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Lillian H. Olzendam to Frank G. Howland
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- Date Created: 1919-11-06
- Description: Olzendam asks Washington County Senator Howland if VESA can publicize the existence of his legislative committee and states that she wishes to publish the text of the Federal Amendment and excerpts from the United States Constitution because legislators don’t seem to fully understand the rights that would be granted to Vermont women upon ratification.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Lillian H. Olzendam to Frank G. Howland
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- Date Created: 1919-11-17
- Description: Olzendam asks Washington County Senator Howland if he would have a conversation with the Governor and present some facts that she has enclosed to help him “realize that a special session would be the pleasantest way out of a bad situation,” and notes that after the American Legion affair he would be looking for an opportunity to “set himself right with the people of the State.”
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Lillian H. Olzendam to John Spargo
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- Date Created: 1919-11-15
- Description: Olzendam writes to John Spargo of Bennington about his interest in helping to obtain a special legislative session, and puts him in touch with Washington County Senator Howland, the chairman of the legislative committee to ask Governor Clement for a special session.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Lillian Herrick Olzendam to Lisa M. Wilkinson
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- Date Created: 1919-09-15
- Description: Olzendam relays Horton's idea for a "Citizenship Conference" to be held in Burlington, the "hot-bed of Antis," with men and women speakers (including Mrs. Schoonmaker of Connecticut), later to be brought to Bennington.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Carrie Chapman Catt to Annette W. Parmelee
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- Date Created: 1919-09-24
- Description: Catt tells Parmelee that her convention paper was thorough and excellent, but that the NAWSA cannot pay states for sending in their histories and can only promise a copy of the book once written.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Edwin D. Moore to Lillian H. Olzendam
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- Date Created: 1919-11-21
- Description: Representative Edwin Moore of Bennington responds that he does not approve of asking the Governor for a special session but would attend if one was called. [Response is written on bottom of original request from Olzendam]
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection
Lillian Herrick Olzendam to William H. Dyer
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- Date Created: 1919-10-19
- Description: Olzendam asks Representative Dyer of Salisbury for his signature in support of ratification, tells him she believes he thinks "the Constitution of Vermont supercedes that of the United States of America," and explains the national importance of Vermont's position.
- Parent Collections: Women's Suffrage in Vermont Collection