Iñupiaq men in qayaqs, Noatak, Alaska, circa 1929. Edward S. Curtis Collection, Library of Congress Digital Collections.
Crossing the Chilkoot Pass, circa 1898. Courtesy Candy Waugaman and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
The Gold Rush boomtown of Nome on the Seward Peninsula, 1900. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library.
Prepared by Beverly Beeton and R. Bruce Parham[1], July 2020
Votes for Women, Woman Suffrage in Alaska: A Resource List is part of a nationwide initiative to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment intended to ensure that the right to vote would not be denied based on sex. This list grew out of the Alaska Historical Society’s special initiative commemorating the centennial of woman suffrage in 2020.
During 2020, many speeches and exhibits will be presented by museums, archives, libraries, historical societies, leagues of women voters, universities and communities celebrating the 19th Amendment and Alaska women getting the vote in Alaska in 1913. Please watch for these events in your areas.
Women’s Suffrage in Alaska: A Historical Overview
By August 18, 1920, thirty-six states had ratified the amendment, granting women voting rights. This ratification was a result of the efforts of a number of women’s rights groups that had been working in a systematic way since 1848, when women organized nationally for suffrage in Seneca Falls, New York. For nearly 150 years, from the Declaration of Independence until the adoption of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, the right to vote had been denied to most women throughout the United States. While the national suffrage organizations were in the East, territories and states in the American West were the first to grant women the right to vote. Alaska became the 10th “Suffrage Star” when it joined nine western states where women had the right to vote in 1913—Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona and Kansas.
In Alaska, woman suffrage was part of a national wave of Progressive Era reforms advanced from the turn of the century to World War I that included prohibition of liquor, restriction of prostitution, higher wages, better working conditions and hours, and people’s direct involvement in politics through the initiative, referendum, secret ballots and recall. Some caution is needed when talking about how women got the vote in Alaska because a significant amount of inaccurate information has been published. Here are some inaccurate statements: “No one asked for votes for women in Alaska”; “E.B. Collins, Representative from Fox, introduced House Bill No. 2, in 1913, to extend the elective franchise to women in the Territory of Alaska”; “Elwood Brunner of Nome expressed his opposition to the idea of women voting and absented himself during the vote”; and “Governor John F.A. Strong signed the bill into law.”
The facts that Beverly Beeton found in her research are: on March 10, 1913, Representative Arthur Shoup from Sitka introduced House Bill No. 2: To Extend the Elective Franchise to Women in the Territory of Alaska. Representative Milo Kelly from Knik introduced the first petition entitled Equal Franchise for Women. This petition was written and signatures gathered by Cornelia Templeton Jewett Hatcher in Knik where she was living with her husband Robert Lee Hatcher, known for rich quartz gold finds in the Talkeetna Mountains. Cornelia was a seasoned woman suffrage advocate and prohibition leader who had edited the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union newspaper, The Union Signal, in Chicago before coming to Alaska.
Charles E. Ingersoll, Harvard educated lawyer from Ketchikan, moved to delay action on the suffrage bill. Other members of the House of Representatives wanted nothing to do with Ingersoll’s delaying tactics; they voted down his motion and moved the legislation forward. As Alaska’s first House of Representatives was voting to pass the woman suffrage bill (without Ingersoll voting), a telegram arrived from Francis Turner Pedersen, Ida E. Green and Ada Brownell of Seward saying they were sending a petition with 143 signatures for voting rights for women on the steamship Mariposa. The bill was introduced in the Senate, the petitions from Knik and Seward were presented and senators voted to pass. On March 21, 1913, Governor Walter E. Clark signed the law enfranchising Alaska women with the qualifications of citizenship required of male electors. Thus, the first bill passed by Alaska’s First Legislature was introduced and signed into law in less than two weeks.
Some of the reasons woman suffrage in Alaska become law quickly are: When it enabled a legislature in Alaska, the U.S. Congress authorized Alaska’s legislators to enfranchise women. The National American Woman Suffrage Association and Washington State suffragists lobbied Alaska representatives and senators as soon as they were elected. For some time, Cornelia Hatcher had given speeches around Alaska favoring votes for women. Socialists, the Western Federation of Miners and other labor unions had declared in favor of voting rights for women. In short, support for women’s involvement in politics had grown.
However, when it came to voting, it was complicated: a woman’s citizenship status was determined by her husband’s citizenship. Thus, a foreign-born woman became an instant citizen when she married a U.S. citizen. At the same time, the Expatriation Act passed by Congress in 1907, declared an American woman marrying a non-citizen automatically lost her U.S. citizenship and was forced to assume the nationality of her husband. This was a significant concern in Alaska because a third of the white male population was foreign-born, and most women were American born. If the same was applied to an Alaska Native woman, she became eligible to vote upon marriage to a white citizen or an Indian man who had severed tribal relations under the Dawes Act of 1887.
While the question of Alaska Natives’ citizenship remained unclear, there is evidence that some Native men and women voted. In most cases, they were from small towns and villages where Natives were the majority of residents; there is little evidence of Natives voting in large numbers in larger communities that were dominantly white. Historian Stephen Haycox analyzed the election returns from Southeast Alaska from 1918 to 1926 and found “a significant increase in the number of votes from Indian villages starting in 1922, a greater percentage increase in votes than that recorded in the white towns.”[2] There are additional records of Natives voting in other parts of Alaska; frequently, these records were published when elections were contested.
After the United States deemed Natives and Indians to be citizens in 1924, William Paul, Sr. was the first Alaska Native elected to the Alaska legislature. It would be twelve more years before Nell Carter Scott of Seldovia was the first woman elected to the legislature. While the question of Native citizenship was resolved in 1924, Alaska’s 1925 law requiring literacy (Alaska Voters’ Literacy Act of 1925) to be allowed to vote was seen as a way to keep Natives and other minorities out of polling booths. As a counter, Alaska’s 1945 nondiscrimination legislation (Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945), passed a decade before the national civil rights campaign, brought some clarity to Alaska Native’s voting rights.
_____________________________________________________________________
[1] Beverly Beeton, Ph.D., is the former Provost of the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is the author of Women Vote in the West: The Western Suffrage Movement, 1869-1896 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1986). She has lectured extensively on the role of women in Alaska, prohibition, prostitution and the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Prior to her unexpected death in August 2020, she was finalizing a book on the social history of Alaska during the Progressive Era. R. Bruce Parham, M.A., is the former Director of the National Archives at Anchorage, Anchorage, AK. He is a board member of the Cook Inlet Historical Society and the Alaska State Historical Records Advisory Board. He has taken care to assure the references cited here are accurate and up-to-date.
[2] Stephen W. Haycox, “Racism, Indians and Territorial Politics,” in Interpreting Alaska’s History: An Anthology, Mary Childers Mangusso and Stephen W. Haycox, eds. (Anchorage: Alaska Pacific University Press, 1989), 291.
General Outline and Organization
The struggle for voting rights in Alaska is a story that needs further examination. To encourage this work, the following resource list of primary and secondary sources focusing on woman suffrage in Alaska is provided as follows:
Primary Sources:
Secondary Sources:
Records of the Office of the District and Territorial Governor, RG 101
(Digitally Available on Alaska’s Digital Archives)
Governor Walter E. Clark’s correspondence files about the passage of HB 2, An Act to Extend the Elective Franchise to Women, 1913; File 73, Legislation, Terr., Bills, Actions, Etc., General Correspondence, 1913, Box VS 114; Records of the Office of the District and Territorial Governor, Record Group 101, Alaska State Archives, Juneau. Alaska’s Digital Archives; https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg41/id/721/rec/12.
Governor Walter E. Clark’s official records for the passage of HB 2, An Act to Extend the Elective Franchise to Women, March 1913; File 73, Legislation, Terr., Bills, Actions, Etc., General Correspondence, 1913, Box VS 114; Records of the Office of the District and Territorial Governor, Record Group 101, Alaska State Archives, Juneau. Alaska’s Digital Archives; https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg41/id/722/rec/13.
Records of the Office of the District and Territorial Governor, RG 101
Textual Records (in Juneau)
The files, below, contain correspondence on woman suffrage during the administrations of Governors Walter E. Clark (1909-1913) and John F.A. Strong (1913-1918). The Alaska State Archives is the official repository for district, territorial, and state government records for the State of Alaska. Contact: Alaska State Archives, 395 Whittier Street, Juneau, AK. 99801; Tel. 907.465-2270; e-mail: archives@alaska.gov; https://archives.alaska.gov/researchQ.html.
Prior to their transfer to the Alaska State Archives by the National Archives, the records of the district and territorial governor were reproduced on microfilm as National Archives Microfilm Publication M939, General Correspondence of Alaskan Territorial Governors, 1909-1958 (378 rolls, 35 mm). The microfilm reproductions are available for viewing by researchers at libraries in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau. The section on “National Archives Microfilm Publications” which immediately follows, gives information on how to find specific microfilm rolls. Except for a limited number of documents identified in the previous section, these records have not been digitized and are not available on Alaska’s Digital Archives or other websites.
Textual Records (Alaska State Archives, Juneau)
National Archives Microfilm Publications
(in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, and other locations):
The files, below, contain microfilm reproductions of correspondence on woman suffrage during the administrations of Alaska Governors Walter E. Clark (1909-1913) and John F.A. Strong (1913-1918). The original correspondence is held at the Alaska State Archives, Juneau.
National Archives Microfilm Publication M939, General Correspondence of Alaskan Territorial Governors, 1909-1958, contains twenty-six letters from regional and national suffrage organizations, newspaper clippings, and from individuals (M939, rolls 10, 17, and 41).
Digital Availability: Not digitized.
Finding Aid: National Archives Descriptive Pamphlet M939, General Correspondence of the Alaskan Territorial Governors, 1909-1958 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1980), 106 pp. Source: National Archives Microfilm Catalog, https://www.archives.gov/research [Research Our Records/Other Online Research Tools/Microfilm Catalog].
Viewing Locations (within Alaska only):
In Anchorage:
In Fairbanks:
In Juneau:
Viewing Location (National Archives and Records Administration):
Records of the Alaska Territorial Legislature, RG 109
(Digitally Available on Alaska’s Digital Archives)
House Bill No. 2, An Act to Extend the Elective Franchise to Women in the Territory of Alaska, March 14, 1913. House Journal, 1913, Series 426, Alaskan Territorial Legislature, 1913-1953, Box AS 5214. Records of the Alaskan Territorial Legislature, Record Group 109, Alaska State Archives, Juneau, AK.
Digital Availability: Shoup Women Suffrage Bill: House Bill No. 2, March 21, 1913 Alaska’s Digital Archives, https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg21/id/1960/rec/10.
Government Publications
Alaska. Territorial Legislature. House of Representatives. The Journal of the House of Representatives . . . . Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Alaska. Juneau: [The Legislature], 1913; Alaska Empire Daily Press, 1913.
Alaska. Territorial Legislature. Senate. Senate Journal of the Legislature of the Territory of Alaska. Juneau: [The Legislature], 1913; Daily Dispatch Press, 1913.
Manuscript Collections
Bloom, Robert and Jessie. Papers, 1908-1975. Series 2, American Jewish Archives Collection, 1889-1980 (USUAFV3-4), Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.
Finding Aid: http://star.library.uaf.edu/starweb/l.skca-catalog/servlet.starweb.
Note to Researchers: Research is by appointment only; to schedule an appointment, or request more information, please contact the Archives by phone at (907) 474-2791 or by email at: UAF-APR-reference-Service@alaska.edu.
Bloom, Jesse Spiro. “Watching Alaska Grow: The Personal Recollections of a Pioneer,” Box 4, Folder 43, p. 48. Series 2, Robert and Jessie Bloom Papers, 1908-1975, American Jewish Archives Collection, 1889-1980 (USUAFV3-4), Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.
Catt, Carrie Chapman. Papers, 1880-1958, Sophia Smith Collection (SSC-MS-00031), Smith College, Northhampton, MA. “A Very Brief History of Woman Suffrage,” Series 2, Correspondence, 1892-1947, Box 3, Folder 1.
Finding Aid: https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/483.
Hatcher, Cornelia Templeton Jewett. Hatcher Papers, 1867-1953 (B2008.15), Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK. Gift of Robin Rustad. 3 scrapbooks.
Digital Availability: Digitized, but digital copies are not available on Alaska’s Digital Archives or other websites. Due to the condition of the three scrapbooks, digitized preservation copies (DVD) will be provided to the researcher. Upon request, the archivist will check on the fragility of any original items to determine if they can be made available in the research room.
Finding Aid: User Guide by Beverly Beeton; https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/media/2855/b2008015-hatcher.pdf.
Summary: The papers of Cornelia Hatcher consist of approximately 493 items of correspondence, newspaper clippings, articles, essays, photographs, post cards, and other related materials, all of which were digitized in 2008. Historian Beverly Beeton arranged for this donation to the Museum and assisted staff with digitizing these documents and prepared a detailed User’s Guide to the papers. As described by Beverly Beeton: “Cornelia’s great granddaughter, Robin Rustad, donated this collection of materials arranged in three scrapbooks by Cornelia’s daughter–Hazel Jewel Phelps Wells and a Sidney Laurence painting of the Hatcher Relay Station in the Talkeetna Mountains to the Anchorage Museum. The papers contain her letters, newspaper clippings, and photographs with notes by her daughter (Hazel Jewett Phelps Wells) giving the daughter’s perspective on Cornelia’s life. Born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in 1867, Cornelia married John H. Jewett in 1888. They had Hazel in 1889 and separated in 1897; they divorced in 1910. For many years in Chicago, she edited the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) newspaper, The Union Signal. She came to Alaska and married quartz gold prospector and miner Robert Lee Hatcher. Cornelia went on to lead Progressive Era reforms in Alaska for votes for women and prohibition of liquor.”
Jones, Arlitia. Make Good the Fires [Play] (March 2009). Cyrano’s Theatre Company, Anchorage, AK. Cyrano’s Theatre Company Records, 1987-2013. Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK.
Playwright Arlitia Jones used Beverly Beeton’s material and consultation on Lena Morrow Lewis to write Make Good the Fires that was presented by Cyrano’s Theatre Comp any in Anchorage in March 2009. The files in the Cyrano’s Theatre Company Records include a printed program and digitized copies of photographs and program materials.
Finding Aid: Guide to the Cyrano’s Theatre Company Records, 1987-2013 (HMC-1150), Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK; https://archives.consortiumlibrary.org/collections/specialcollections/hmc-1150/?highlight=cyrano%26%23039%3Bs%20theatre.
Lewis, Lena Morrow. Papers, 1899-1951, Tamiment Institute Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, New York University, New York, NY.
Finding Aid: Guide to the Lena Morrow Lewis Papers, 1899-1915 (TAM 0.15); http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_015/. The finding aid indicates that the collection has been microfilmed, and researchers must use the microfilm copy (R-7124, reels 63-65).
Summary: “While these papers contain extensive primary material, the poor quality of the microfilming makes it difficult to read. It consists of 27 photographs, nine scrapbooks, correspondence, and miscellaneous items such as radio scripts and speech notes. Of special interest are newspaper clippings from Lena’s Alaska years (1912-1917) and letters exchanged later with her Alaska women friends and their daughters. The Lewis Papers should be digitized and made available for Alaskans to use. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Archives has copies of a few letters and documents regarding Lena, and a few items can be found in the Socialist Party of Juneau Papers, 1911-1914 (MS 4-7-2), at the Alaska Historical Collections, Juneau. The surviving microfilm editions of the Alaska Socialist, Socialist Press, Alaska Sunday Evening Post, and Alaska Labor News, all edited for a time by Lena, contain articles about and by her as does the national Progressive Woman, initially published as the Socialist Woman.” (Beverly Beeton)
Lewis, Lena Morrow. Photograph Collection (Photos 043). Tamiment Institute Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, New York University, New York, NY.
Finding Aid: http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/photos_043/.
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Collection, 1890-1938, Rare Books Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. 1,935 digitized items.
Finding Aid: https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-american-woman-suffrage-association/about-this-collection/.
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Records, 1839-1961 (Identification No. MSS 34132, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Finding Aid: https://www.loc.gov/item/mm77034132/.
Wilson, Margaret K. Collection, ca. 1911-1914 (USUAFV6-775). Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.
Finding Aid: http://star.library.uaf.edu.
Included is a photograph of Lena Morrow Lewis (1868-1950), who lived in Alaska from 1912-1917. She was a Socialist Party organizer and lecturer on socialism and women’s rights, and a candidate for public office on the Socialist ticket. She died in New York City at eighty-eight in 1950.
Wickersham, James. Wickersham Diaries, January 1, 1900-April 27, 1939, Wickersham Historic Site Manuscript Collection, 1884-1970s, Boxes 1-7 (MS 107), Alaska Historical Collections, Alaska State Library, Juneau, AK.
Digital Availability: James Wickersham, Wickersham Diaries, January 1, 1900-April 27, 1939; Alaska’s Digital Archives, https://www.vilda.alaska.edu.
Wickersham, James. Wickersham Historic Site Manuscript Collection, 1884-1970s (MS 107), Alaska Historical Collections, Alaska State Library, Juneau, AK. 80 boxes.
Finding Aid: https://alaska.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/239.
Newspapers
Alaska had a great collection of newspapers published during the territorial period. The Alaska State Library is digitizing many of these newspapers and making them available through the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1789-1963 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) website. Newspapers are great historical resources worth looking through day by day.
Alaska’s Digital Newspaper Program. Alaska Historical Collections. https://library.alaska.gov/hist/newspaper/digital_home.html.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Washington, DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
This site allows you to search and view millions of pages from historic newspapers from 1789-1963. Search this collection to find articles about the woman suffrage movement and the 19th Amendment.
Given below, are citations for a few articles from Alaska newspapers on the woman suffrage in Alaska and the passage of the first bill passed by Alaska’s first legislature granting voting rights to women (1913). Alaska newspapers edited by Lena Morrow Lewis were consistently supportive of women’s rights. John F.A. Strong (later governor) was editor of the Alaska Daily Empire in 1913 and was very supportive of votes for women; other Alaska editors were more mixed in their support for the issue:
[Woman Suffrage]. Douglas Island News, January 8, 1913, image 2, column 3.
“Three New Bills Are Introduced.” Alaskan Daily Empire (Juneau), March 10, 1913, image 1.
“Passes the Woman Suffrage Bill. Shoup’s Suffrage Bill Passes House.” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), March 14, 1913, image 1.
“Progressive Measure Before Legislature [Editorial].” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), March 15, 1913, image 2.
“Shoup Standing in Limelight.” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), March 17, 1913, 4.
“Territorial Legislature. Alaska Suffragettes.” Alaska Citizen (Fairbanks), March 17, 1913, image 7.
“Not Friendly to Woman Suffrage.” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), March 21, 1913, image 3.
“The Setting of an Example [Editorial].” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), March 22, 1913.
“Woman Suffrage Bill Becomes a Law.” Iditarod Pioneer, March 22, 1913, 1.
“Every Senator Votes for Woman Equality.” Daily Alaskan (Skagway), March 22, 1913, image 1.
“Echoes from the First Legislature.” Iditarod Pioneer, March 22, 1913, image 1.
“How the Suffrage Bill Passed.” Daily Alaskan (Skagway), March 27, 1913, image 1.
“Alaska Lawmakers’ Pictures in Print.” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), April 3, 1913, image 1.
“Governor Clark Signs First Bill. Executive’s Signature to First Home-Made Law.” Alaska Daily Empire (Juneau), April 5, 1913, image 2.
“Good Guessing Nit [Woman Suffrage].” Valdez Daily Prospector, May 6, 1913, image 4.
Photograph Collections
This is a selected list of photographs relating to woman suffrage in Alaska. In addition, there are references to photographs in some entries in the “Manuscripts Collection” section of this list. Researchers may want to contact these repositories to determine if they hold additional photographs on suffrage:
Lena Morrow Lewis, five photographs, and one photograph of Jessie Bloom with her husband, Robert, on a ship are in: Series 2, Robert and Jessie Bloom Papers, 1908-1975, (box and folder not known), American Jewish Archives, 1889-1980 (USUAFV3-4), Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.
First Territorial House of Representatives, 1913. Charles D. Jones Papers, ca. 1895-1958 (UAF-913-27), Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.
Digital Availability: First Territorial House of Representatives, 1913; Album 2, Charles D. Jones Papers, ca. 1895-1958. Alaska’s Digital Archives; https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg11/id/41751/rec/1.
“First Alaska Territorial House of Representatives, March 1913, Elk’s Hall – Juneau.” Portraits of the Members of the First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913 (Photographer Anson Mercer); Alaska State Library (ASL-PCA-461), Alaska Historical Collections, Juneau, AK;
Digital Availability: “First Alaska Territorial House of Representatives, March 1913, Elk’s Hall – Juneau.” Alaska’s Digital Archives; https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg21/id/15436/rec/3.
Books
Beeton, Beverly. Women Vote in the West: The Woman Suffrage Movement, 1869-1986. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986.
Buhle, Mary Jo and Paul Buhle, eds. The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from the Classic Work of Stanton, Anthony, Gage, and Harper. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. Hathitrust.
“The Buhles have carefully selected the best from the mass of material in the classic six-volume History of Woman Suffrage and included eighty-two documents in this version. The volume contains the work of many reform agitators, among them Angelina Grimke, Lucy Stone, Carrie Chapman Catt, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna Howard Shaw, Jane Addams, Sojourner Truth, and Victoria Woodhull, as well as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper.” The information about Alaska suffrage contains some inaccuracies and should be used with caution.
Harper, Ida Husted, ed. History of Woman Suffrage. Volumes 5-6: 1900-1920. New York: Fowler & Wells for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922. Hathitrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101075729036&view=1up&seq=13.
Chapter L: “Women’s Suffrage in the Territories and the Philippines.” Alaska, 6: 713-714. The Alaska section of the sixth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage reported that Senator Elwood Bruner of Nome was opposed to women voting and absented him from the Senate roll call and John F.A. Strong (not Walter E. Clark) signed the bill into law. Jeannette Drury Clark, wife of Fairbanks attorney John A. Clark, wrote this inaccurate account of Alaska women getting the vote (Beverly Beeton).
Lichtman, Allan J. The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
“Lichtman’s recent book clarifies that the failure to establish voting as a national citizenship right was a conscious decision by the Constitution’s creators. Lichtman argues that the devolution of authority to the states has been a problem because of exclusion of certain populations from voting” (Quoted from Rebecca J. Mead, “How the Woman’s Vote Was Won in the West: An Overview,” Western Legal History: A Publication of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society 30, nos. 1-2 (2019): 6).
Mead, Rebecca J. How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
Articles
“A celebration of Lena Morrow Lewis, the Colorful Champion of Socialism and Women’s Suffrage, Set in Territorial Alaska,” Anchorage Daily News, March 6, 2009, H4.
Playwright Arlitia Jones used Beverly Beeton’s material and consultation on Lena Morrow Lewis to write Make Good the Fires, a play that was presented by Cyrano’s Theatre Company in Anchorage in March 2009.
Cole, Terrence M. “Jim Crow in Alaska: The Passage of the Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945.” Western Historical Quarterly 23, no. 4 (November 1992): 429-49.
Reprinted, with permission, under the same title, in An Alaska Anthology: Interpreting the Past, edited by Stephen W. Haycox and Mary Childers Mangusso (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995): 314-35.
Eastman, Max. “Is Woman Suffrage Important?” North American Review 193, no. 662 (January 1911): 60-71. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25106847.pdf.
“Governor Walter Eli Clark (January 7, 1869 – February 4, 1950).” Turning Point Suffrage Memorial. https://suffragistmemorial.org/governor-walter-eli-clark-january-7-1869-february-4-1950/.
Haycox, Stephen. “Alaska’s Suffrage History Worth Touting.” Anchorage Daily News; published December 11, 2008, updated September 29, 2016. https://www.adn.com/voices/article/alaskas-suffrage-history-worth-touting/2008/12/12/.
________. “Racism, Indians and Territorial Politics.” In Interpreting Alaska’s History: An Anthology, edited by Mary Childers Mangusso and Stephen W. Haycox, 288-310. Anchorage: Alaska Pacific University Press, 1989.
________. “William Paul Sr. and the Alaska Voters Literacy Act of 1925.” Alaska History 2, no. 1 (1986-1987): 17-38. Alaskool.org. http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/articles/literacy_act/LiteracyTxt.html.
Lanka, Alyssa. “The Life of Cornelia Templeton Jewett Hatcher.” Alaska Historical Society. AHS Blog, March 13, 2019. https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/the-life-of-cornelia-templeton-jewett-hatcher/.
Mead, Rebecca J. “How the Women’s Vote was Won in the West: An Overview.” Western Legal History: The Journal of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 30, nos. 1-2 (2019): 5-16. https://www.njchs.org/wp-content/uploads/wlh_30-1_crp_color1.pdf
(Note: There is no individual link on this special issue of Western Legal History that will direct readers to Rebecca Mead’s article. The above link will direct users to the front cover of this issue, where you will need to scroll down to the table of contents to find the article.)
Exhibits
The Alaska State Museum and Alaska State Archives are making available two suffrage-related traveling exhibits for the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, Alaska’s Suffrage Star and Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote.
Alaska’s Suffrage Star is organized by the Alaska State Museum, and is available to museums, libraries, and archives across Alaska. Cultural institutions, including schools, museums, libraries, and archives, can borrow Rightfully Hers. This traveling exhibit will be available to museums, libraries, and archives across Alaska beginning in the winter of 2020. For more information about borrowing this traveling exhibit, please go to this URL: https://lam.alaska.gov/museum-resources/suffrage.
Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote is a traveling exhibit produced by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), with travel arranged within Alaska by the Alaska State Archives. Cultural institutions, including schools, museums, libraries, and archives, can borrow Rightfully Hers. For more information about borrowing this traveling exhibit, please go to this URL: https://lam.alaska.gov/museum-resources/suffrage.
Alaska’s Suffrage Star [Traveling Exhibit]. Alaska State Museum.
https://lam.alaska.gov/museum-resources/suffrage.
Creating Icons: How We Remember Woman Suffrage. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. https://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/creating-icons.
How the Women’s Vote Was Won in the West. Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society. https://www.njchs.org/current-exhibits/
https://www.njchs.org/wp-content/uploads/NJCHS_WomensExhibit2019.pdf
Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote [Traveling Exhibit]. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archivesfoundation.org/women/.
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. https://npg.si.edu/exhibition/votes-for-women.
This exhibit outlines “the more than 80-year movement for women to obtain the right to vote as part of the larger struggle for equality that continued through the 1965 Civil Rights Act and arguably lingers today.” Selections from the exhibit can be viewed on the Google Arts and Culture website, https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/2AKyZX3r7pZoJA.
Theses and Dissertations
Morris, Colleen. “An Herstorical View of the Alaskan Territorial Legislature’s 1913 Vote to Emancipate Women.” M.A. thesis, Harvard University, 1995. vii, 101 leaves, illustrations.
Websites
1st Territorial Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, 1913. 100 Years of Alaska’s Legislature. “From Territorial Days to Today.” Alaska State Legislature. https://akleg.gov/100years/legislature.php?id=-1.
“Alaska and the 19th Amendment.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/alaska-and-the-19th-amendment.htm.
Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame. http://alaskawomenshalloffame.org.
Includes short biographical sketches (written by Beverly Beeton) of Cornelia Hatcher (1867-1953) and Lena Morrow Lewis (1862-1950), who campaigned for women’s rights and prepared women to vote.
Ault, Allicia. “How Women Got the Vote is a Far More Complicated Story Than the History Books Reveal.” Smithsonian Magazine, April 9, 2019. SmithsonianMag.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-women-got-vote-far-more-complex-story-history-textbooks-reveal-180971869/.
“Recovering Our Past: The Struggle for Woman’s Suffrage.” Project Jukebox. Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program. 2009. Updated 2019. http://jukebox.uaf.edu/site7/suffragists.
“Women Gain the Right to Vote.” In the “Territory of Alaska.” Governing Alaska. Alaska History & Cultural Studies. Alaska Humanities Forum. https://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article_artID_135/.
Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission. https://www.womensvote100.org/about.
“Women’s Suffrage and Ratification of the 19th Amendment: An NPS StoryMap.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/gis/storymaps/maptour/v3/index.html?appid=fab3966cc1b447c0b67e96e6ebc12470.
