Geographies of Suffrage, 1910–1913

This chapter evaluates the metropolitan strategies activists developed in the early 1910s. Leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt and Harriot Stanton Blatch and organizations like the Woman Suffrage Party and the Women’s Political Union created a foothold for the campaign by opening headquarters in Murray Hill, a retail area in Midtown Manhattan. The suffrage district created there quite literally put the women’s rights crusade on the map, improving its visibility and professional status. At the same time, activists reached beyond this one district. A few aggressively moved into other parts of the city, claiming areas once deemed unsafe for middle-class women. Some tried to recruit nurses and actors to further publicize their message. Organizers capitalized on New York’s budding film industry to spread images of this diverse coalition across the nation. Celluloid views of the cityscape, parade footage, and scenes from headquarters helped to crystallize the image of suffrage as a distinctly urban affair, enabling women across the nation to vicariously participate.