Title: Votes for Women Club Records, 1912-1919

ID: OGLMC0080

Primary Creator: Votes for Women Club (1912-1919)

Extent: 0.25 Linear Feet

Subjects: Women's History - Suffrage, Women's History - Women's Organizations

Languages: English

The Votes for Women Club of Grand Forks was organized on March 1, 1912 as a chapter of the Votes for Women League of North Dakota, headquartered in Fargo, N.D. The Club's first elected officers, constituting the Executive Committee, were: Mrs. Alice Nelson Page, President; Dr. Mae Saunders, Vice President; Miss Ferguson, Secretary; Miss Mary E. McCumber, Treasurer. The Club's objective was to advance the industrial, legal, and educational rights of women, and to secure suffrage to them by appropriate state and national legislation.

Membership was open to all who signed the constitution and paid annual dues of twenty-five cents. The Club claimed 207 members. Eligibility for offices was not gender-based. However, all seventeen officers and chairs of the Votes for Women League of North Dakota, and all Grand Forks Club officers, were women. Regular monthly meetings were held at which clergy, university professors, politicians, and other speakers would address suffrage and other women's issues. Members elected officers at annual meetings.

The Club hosted women's suffrage booths at state and county fairs, distributed suffrage literature, organized a petition to Congress for the passage of suffragist legislation, and wrote to candidates for political office to ascertain their views on suffrage. The Club became inactive upon North Dakota Governor Frazier's signing of the Susan B. Anthony Federal Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution and its subsequent ratification. Despite some disagreement, a letter of thanks to Governor Frazier for signing the Amendment was voted on and sent. After two years of inactivity, the Club held its last meeting on December 29, 1919.

Women's History - Suffrage
Women's History - Women's Organizations

Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections

Accruals: Additional material was donated by Karen T. Miller, Crookston, Minnesota, on May 17, 2004 (Acc.#2004-2684).

Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.

Acquisition Method: Donation; the original acquisition records are unavailable.

Preferred Citation: (Description of Item). Votes for Women Club Records.  OGLMC 80, Box #, Folder #.  Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota.

Finding Aid Revision History: Finding migrated to Archon in January 2014.