Catt Collection of Suffrage PhotographsBryn Mawr College

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was an internationally recognized suffragist, feminist and political activist. She served two terms as President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and is credited with revitalizing the NAWSA during the struggle for passage of the nineteenth federal amendment granting suffrage to women.

Catt founded the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1902 (later the International Alliance of Women) and served as its president for many years. She formed the League of Women Voters in 1920 and was its honorary president until her death in 1947. In 1925 Catt founded the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. During the 1930s and 1940s Catt was active in working against the Nazis, particularly their persecution of Jews. Although a champion of world peace, Catt was a vocal supporter of the Allied Forces during World War II.

Description of the Albums

The six photograph albums in the Catt collection, which seem to have been compiled and annotated by her assistant, Alda Wilson, contain approximately 815 photographs and a very limited amount of printed matter, mostly newspaper clippings, related to the history of international woman's suffrage. The photographs cover the period from circa 1840 to circa 1940, with the majority dating from the last years of the nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth century.

This database retains the original order of the albums and contains images of each page in its entirety along with single images and their captions. It is possible to browse the collection in album order. The corresponding data files also are searchable by album number, by people and subject. Search terms can be accessed from the advanced page at http://triptych.brynmawr.edu/cgi-bin/advsearch.exe. Corrections and additional information, when available, are given in the "notes" field.

Album 1,"Parades and Pageants," is comprised of photographs of parades, floats, marching units, street meetings, suffrage posters, and suffrage headquarters from throughout the United States.

Album 2, "Pioneers and Leaders," is made up of individual and group photographs of women leaders of the American suffrage movement augmented with a small lot of photographs of male reformers.

Albums 3 ("States M-W, Omitting New York"), 4 ("States A-L") and 5 ("New York State and N.Y. City") are devoted to the individual state organizations. They afford a pictorial record of local campaigns, including New York parades, and provide a collection of portraits of leaders and workers in the suffrage movement at the state and municipal level.

Album 6 focuses on the international suffrage movement. Although most of the photographs are of European subjects, Africa, Asia, South America, and Canada also are represented. Of special note are numerous photographs of international woman's suffrage conferences. Additional information about the Catt photograph collection can be found at http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/speccoll/guides/catt.shtml.