Official Program Woman Suffrage Procession : Washington D.C. March 3, 1913 [wrapper title].

[Washington, D.C., 1913]. Imperial 8vo (9” x 12.25”), color wrappers, [16 pp.]. CONDITION: Good+, moderate wear to wrapper with partial split at spine, pages bumped at lower left, lower wrapper toned, occasional rubbing and toning to contents.

The procession was conceived and organized by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, chairs of the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s Congressional Committee. While the state-by-state fight for suffrage had been gaining ground—one float figured “Nine States of Light Among Thirty-Nine of Darkness”—this procession, taking place the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, “vaulted suffrage into the national spotlight…effectively reviving the [national] amendment drive.” Although the procession’s white organizers attempted to exclude and sideline women of color, more than forty Black women, including Ida B. Wells, and at least one Native American, lawyer Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, marched with their states or professions.

This program includes a foreword from Paul and Burns on “The purpose of this National Procession,” a brief essay on “Why Women Want To Vote,” and, of course, the layout of the march. It was divided into six sections. The first two were allegorical: section one, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, represented “The World-Wide Movement for Woman Suffrage”; section two figured “The Seventy-Five Year’s Struggle” for suffrage. The rest represented present-day social arguments for suffrage: “Man and Woman Make the State: Man Alone Rules the State” (section three); “The Appeal of Business and the Professions” (section four); a section for all those latecomers unable to don a uniform, but comprising “business women, club women, women clergy” and so on, all bearing their flags; and lastly, “The Appeal of the States” (section 6), which concluded with the “National Men’s League for Women Suffrage.” Sections had floats, bands, and mounted leaders, as well as uniforms and color coordination. Bordering the program are biographies of the procession organizers, interspersed with advertisements.

The front wrapper illustration—featuring a triumphant, purple-robed woman astride a white steed, blowing a trumpet from which hangs a banner reading “Votes for Women”—was designed by Benjamin Moran Dale (1889–1951), who also illustrated for the Ladies Home Journal, American Home, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and other publications.

OCLC records just six copies.

A very scarce item marking an important moment in the fight for woman suffrage.

REFERENCES: Ahniser, J. D. and Amelia R. Fry. Alice Paul: Claiming Power (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 126; Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who In American Art (Sound View Press, 1985), p. 147; “1913 Woman Suffrage Procession,” National Park Service online.