Research Guides: Women's Suffrage: Nineteenth Amendment

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Nineteenth Amendment

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote and was ratified by the states on August 18, 1920. The passage and effects of the Nineteenth Amendment are documented in the Schlesinger Library's holdings through archival collections, published materials, and visual materials such as photographs and posters. More information about searching for visual materials can be found on the Photographs page of this research guide.

In the summer of 2020, the Schlesinger Library launched the Suffrage School, a platform where a broad array of researchers, writers, and teachers have been invited to create a series of digital teaching modules. Each lesson in the Suffrage School connects in rich and unpredictable ways to the Library’s Long 19th Amendment Project, which tackles the tangled history of gender and American citizenship.

This page includes links to materials from the Library's collections that are available online as well as links to some external resources. Please consult the other pages in this guide for information about other materials that are not yet available online.

Archival Collections

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Best known for her lifelong crusade for woman’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony was first active in the temperance and anti-slavery movements. Discrimination within these movements, as well as the influence of her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, helped to convinced Anthony that women could not fully participate in social action until equal rights were first secured. She helped organize the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 and served as the second president of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1891-1900. In 1872, Anthony cast a vote for which she was arrested and tried. She died in March 1906 at the age of 86, fourteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave American women the right to vote. This collection has been digitized and is available through the Susan B. Anthony research guide.
Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950)
This collection consists of one autograph letter signed from Blackwell to Anna Child Bird concerning Bird's voting as a presidential elector and mentioning anti-suffragists as electors, including Elizabeth Lowell Putnam. The letter can be viewed online.
Blackwell-Stone Family collections
Materials relating to Lucy Stone and her family's work on the cause of suffrage can be found through a number of Blackwell family collections. All of the collections have been digitized and are available through the Blackwell Family research guide.
Alice Paul (1885-1977)
This collection is digitized. Visit the finding aid for the Alice Paul collection (Call#: MC 399) for access to the digitized content.
Alice Paul was a Quaker, lawyer, and lifelong activist for women’s rights. She was active in the Women’s Social and Political Union in England, where she was arrested and jailed repeatedly as a participant in the campaign for women’s rights led by Emmeline Pankhurst. After returning to the United States in 1910, Paul was appointed chair of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1912. In June 1916, Paul founded the National Woman’s Party (NWP), its sole plank a resolution calling for immediate passage of the federal amendment guaranteeing the enfranchisement of women. After the ratification of the suffrage amendment in 1920, the NWP began a long battle to end all legal discrimination against women in the United States and to raise the legal, social, and economic status of women around the world.

Books

Alice Paul: Jailed for Freedom
This book was written by Doris Stevens about Alice Paul's work toward the Nineteenth Amendment. A digitized copy of Alice Paul: Jailed for Freedom can be accessed online.
The Story of the Woman's Party
This book was written by Inez Haynes Gillmore in 1921. A digitized copy of The Story of the Woman's Party can be accessed online.
Twenty Questions About the Federal Amendment Proposed by the National Woman's Party
This pamphlet was published by the National Consumer's League in 1922. Twenty Questions About the Federal Amendment is digitized and can be accessed online.
Women at Work: A Century of Industrial Change
Written by Eleanor Crosby Nelson and published in 1933, this book was written during Nelson's time with the Division of Public Information at the Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. Using specific details about the lives of American women from all backgrounds, it is a comprehensive review of women's progress in industry. Women at Work can be accessed online.

Database

Women Working, 1800-1930
This freely available database features more than 500,000 pages of historical documentation focusing on the role of women in the United States economy. The sources include books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and images selected from Harvard's library and museum collections.

External Sources

Library of Congress: Chronicling America
This database allows you to search and view newspaper pages from around the United States. You can narrow the time frame to suit research on the 19th Amendment and other topics.
Library of Congress: Primary Documents in American History
Library of Congress: Primary Sources
This page highlights materials relating to suffrage and the 19th amendment.
National Archives: 19th Amendment
National Archives: Lesson on Tennessee's Ratification
National Constitution Center
National Woman's Party National Monument
U.S. House of Representatives Historical Highlights
U. S. Senate Art and History