Marblehead has a rich history of women fighting for their political rights. The Marblehead Women’s Suffrage League created this banner, which they may have marched with in parades or displayed during meetings.
The banner declares, “The woman’s cause is man’s; they rise or sink together,” a quote from an Alfred Lord Tennyson poem. Founded in 1887, the Suffrage League’s membership included prominent local women like Marcia Selman, the author of “Marblehead Forever.”
In 1914, a group of 47 women founded a successor group, the Marblehead Suffrage Association, which sold suffrage memorabilia, organized rallies at Abbot Hall and Crocker Park, and pressured local politicians to support suffrage. The rallies featured prominent suffragists from the Boston area, such as Margaret Foley, whom the Boston Herald nicknamed the “Heckler-in-Chief” for her habit of cajoling anti-suffrage politicians at public events.
The Suffrage Association featured a cross-section of middle-class Marblehead women, including teachers, dressmakers, botanists, students, college professors, a milliner and a masseuse. Suffrage was also a family affair, as sisters Charlotte, Sarah and Mary Hawkes worked for the cause from their home at 58 Washington St.
Like any political movement, the association witnessed its fair share of setbacks and victories. In 1915, a statewide campaign to enact women’s suffrage in Massachusetts failed, and Marblehead men did little to advance the cause — only 25% of them voted in favor. However, the Association saw the fruits of their labor when the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, and they proudly became part of Essex County’s first League of Women Voters.
Jarrett Zeman is the assistant director of the Marblehead Museum. “From the Vault” is a partnership between the Marblehead Museum and the Marblehead Current.
