Jewelia Ann Galloway Higgins was a suffragist, civil rights activist, community leader, and one of the first Black Red Cross Nurses in Dayton, Ohio. During the 1912 Ohio campaign for the Suffrage Amendment, she and other Black suffragists worked alongside the white members of the Dayton Woman Suffrage Association. Community Archives of Patricia Smith Griffin.

Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, with Carrie Chapman Catt in a parade. Ohio History Connection.

Suffragists at Ohio Statehouse. Ohio History Connection.

On March 3, 1913, more than 5,000 women march on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. to demand the right to vote. This postcard depicts an allegorical tableaux held in front of the Treasury Building that was part of the event. Dancer Florence Fleming Noyes stands in front. The Ohio State University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

Florence E. Allen, 1903-1904. Florence E. Allen, graduate of the Western Reserve University College for Women in 1904 and Graduate School in 1908, was an ardent suffragist. She received her law degree from New York University. She was active in the national suffrage movement and challenged laws that limited women’s participation in politics. After women won the right to vote she ran for office and held numerous positions culminating in her appointment as Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Case Western Reserve University.

This photograph from around 1915 shows suffragettes and their supporters marching through downtown Springfield around the Esplanade demanding voting rights for women. Clark County Historical Society.

Rosalie Jones (by horse) and Elisabeth Freeman of New York City who traveled in their “little yellow wagon” to gain support for “Votes for Women.” They visited and spoke at the Logan County Fair in 1912, where this postcard was received from Miss Jones and sent to one of the founders of the local Woman’s Franchise League, Eva Byers. Logan County Historical Society.

This suffrage valentine is from the scrapbook of Helen H. Stevens, Western Reserve University College for Women class of 1919. She served as president of the campus Equal Suffrage League in 1917/1918. Case Western Reserve University.

Recruitment poster created by Western Reserve University College for Women Equal Suffrage League, 1919. The first campus student suffrage organization was established in 1908. Over the course of the next 12 years, students worked to help women gain the right to vote. They hosted campus, local and national speakers, a mock election, luncheons and teas, and produced at least 2 plays. The Equal Suffrage League cooperated with other campus groups such as YWCA, Present Day Club, and Consumers’ League. Case Western Reserve University.

Local members of the Woman’s Franchise League at the Logan County Fair circa 1914. Logan County’s “Woman’s Franchise League”, founded in Bellefontaine in January 1912. Their goal was to gain support for the passage of the suffrage amendment. To quote their 1919 report, “The daily papers have been generous in space and comment, public speakers of note have been heard at the Chautauquas, at the county fairs, and at meetings held in public places as well as in private home, and in schools.” They also passed out “vote yes” cards at the polls, and distributed literature by mail and in person, and studied civil government and parliamentary law. By 1914, when the amendment was petitioned for again, the local Franchise League secured signatures of 1540 Logan County voters for its passage. Logan County Historical Society.

A leaflet encouraging readers to vote for women’s suffrage in Columbus, Ohio. Women gained the right to vote in the city in 1917, three years before the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. The Ohio State University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

This quote taken from an 1836 letter by Abraham Lincoln was commonly used in promoting suffrage. The Ohio State University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library