Given the historical timing of the Women’s Suffrage Movement during the peak decades of horse power and the need for mobility to marshal the campaign, equines were instrumental in the effort at local, state, and national levels.
Eliz. Freeman enrout [sic] to Wash’n, Library of Congress.
The image above depicts famed suffragist and civil rights activist Elisabeth Freeman (1876-1942) participating in the organized Suffrage Hike from New York City to Washington, DC, for the 1913 suffrage parade. She leads an equine partner pulling an iconic Suffrage Wagon inscribed with “Votes for Women” slogans and carrying a human co-worker and suffrage literature for distribution. The horse-drawn Suffrage Wagon brought attention to the many journeys undertaken by thousands of suffragettes around the country during the long campaign.
With the formation of suffrage clubs in Iowa beginning in the late 1860s and 70s, rural and urban supporters joined the effort and met via equine transport.
Reproduced on panel:
Elisabeth Freeman of the New York State Suffrage Association en route to Washington D.C. suffrage march, February 17, 1913
Bain Collection, Library of Congress
In the case:
Each object in the cases is marked with a corresponding number unless otherwise noted.
58. “Let Iowa Women Vote” flags
59. “Iowa Women in the Country”
60 “The Woman’s Reason”
Iowa Suffrage Memorial Commission records, Iowa Women’s Archives