Manuscripts Collection
The organization began around 1868 as the Woman Suffrage Club of Minneapolis and became the Political Equality Club of Minneapolis in 1897. A fire that year destroyed the club's records, so little is known of its early history.
Monthly meetings, September through June, were held first in members' homes and later in established headquarters, including the offices of doctors Cora Smith Eaton and Margaret Koch, and of Ethel Edgerton Hurd and Anna Hurd. In 1897-1898 the club also organized subsidiary groups in twelve of Minneapolis's thirteen wards, each with its own chairman, secretary/treasurer, meetings in members' homes, and fund raising activities.
The club used a variety of methods to promote women's suffrage, including registration of supporters and distribution of literature at the Minnesota State Fair; petitions to the state legislature and Congress; appeals to all conventions and annual meetings held in Minneapolis to pass resolutions in support of women's suffrage; registration of women voters and active support of women candidates for school and library boards; sponsorship of public lectures, many by nationally known suffragists, and of legislative luncheons held during the state legislative sessions to consider bills that were of interest to women; Red Cross work; suffrage teas; participation in parades; annual picnics with speakers that attracted nonmembers; and fund raising activities, especially rummage sales, a mock senate (1914), and an historical pageant ("Catching Up With Father") that depicted stirring events in the struggle for women's suffrage (1917).
In May 1900, quietly and without acknowledging it as part of the Political Equality Club, the club organized the Minneapolis Woman's School and Library Organization. Its purpose was to secure as many women voters as possible to vote in school and library board elections (their participation was legalized in 1875). It aroused interest in many people otherwise uninterested in women's suffrage.
In 1915 the club also undertook a campaign to encourage the University of Minnesota to begin a full course in home economics and a short course and lectures in child welfare using a small hospital for clinical purposes. By 1917 these programs had all been implemented by the University.
The club hosted many Minneapolis Woman Suffrage Association annual conventions and served as one of the hosts for the National American Woman Suffrage Association's 1897 conference and 1901 convention, both held in Minneapolis. During the latter a large number of delegates were housed in club members' homes.
The club disbanded following the August 26, 1920 passage of the "Anthony Amendment," the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which legalized women's suffrage. Its last meeting was held on September 11, 1920.
Historical information was taken from the collection. See
The records document the history, organization, and activities of the club, including its political and social events, finances, membership, and relations with other local, state, and national suffrage organizations. They include information on the club's promotion of suffrage at public functions, especially the state fair; petitioning state and federal legislatures; supporting women candidates for school and library boards; sponsoring public lectures by suffragists; annual picnics; fund raising activities; and a 1917 historical pageant ("Catching Up With Father") depicting national events in the struggle for women's equality.
Accession number: 1,996; 3,484; 3,786; 15,429
Processed by: Cheryl Norenberg Thies, January 1986; Monica Manny Ralston, June 2001.
Catalog ID number: 09-00022182
Includes yearbooks detailing the club's officers, membership, constitution, and annual program (1905, 1906 and 1915-1916) as well as a yearbook of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (1915). Also contains the club 's constitution and bylaws (May 1914), a list of suffrage clubs in Minnesota (1914), two brief historical sketches of the suffrage movement in Minnesota (1914, 1920), and a historical sketch written by Ethel Edgerton Hurd (duplicated by volume 1).
Minutes and reports originally found loose throughout the collection. Includes minutes of executive (October 31, 1904) and general membership (February 20, 1906, [1909?]) meetings, and the 1915 and 1917 annual reports.
The correspondence is written mainly to or by longtime club president Ethel Edgerton Hurd and is found scattered throughout this section. It includes letters from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), particularly from its corresponding secretary Rachel Foster Avery (1899) and president Carrie Chapman Catt (1900) discussing Minneapolis as the site of NAWSA's 1901 convention.
Correspondence, resolutions, questionnaires, and a rough draft of a legislative bill pertain to the club's campaign for formation of a University of Minnesota home economics department, including letters from University presidents George E. Vincent and M. L. Burton and regents Charles L. Sommers and Fred B. Snyder (1915 and 1917).
A letter from Cyrus Northrup expresses his belief that picketing
at the White House was hurting the Suffrage cause (December 1917). There is
also a 1921 letter from Alice Stone Blackwell concerning club use of a letter
(1899) from her father Henry B. Blackwell, editor of
Also included in this section are a typed copy of the "Reminiscences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton," a pioneer in the American women's suffrage movement (undated); a statement to Minnesota's governor and legislature urging passage of a bill recommending submission of a federal amendment on suffrage for Susan B. Anthony's ninety-first birthday (1901); brief biographical sketches of Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association president Maud Conkey Stockwell (1911) and club member Martha A. Dorsett (1918); the program and script for the club's historical pageant "Catching Up With Father" (April 1917); and the club's resolution to act for federal rather than state action on suffrage (February 1919).
A typed 23-page history written by Ethel Edgerton Hurd relating the club's history from 1897 through its September 1920 dissolution. It particularly highlights club activities, such as state fair registrations, legislative luncheons, lecture series and speakers, and co-hosting the National American Woman Suffrage Association's 1897 conference and 1901 convention.
The books contain minutes of general, executive committee, annual, and special meetings including information on elections, resolutions, finances, fund raising and promotional activities, conventions, committees, and rallies. Volumes 2 and 4 also contain newspaper clippings covering the club's meetings and activities, typed resolutions, and flyers.
Items of special interest in the volumes are the January 6-April 25, 1901 treasurer's record; information on the English woman suffrage movement and election of women to the Minneapolis school and library boards; report on the October 10 through May 11 legislative luncheons, listing the topics discussed; a typed draft of the club's constitution and data on the 1913 suffrage survey of Minneapolis; the club's efforts in support of a department of home economics at the University of Minnesota; the 1915 publication of Ethel E. Hurd's history of suffrage in Minneota and its sale; the December 1917 request for the treasurer's resignation following her participation in the picketing of the White House; cancellation of meetings during the 1917-1918 influenza ban; the purpose of the newly organized League of Women Voters; and the club's last meeting.
Includes handwritten and printed versions of the constitution, the latter containing members' signatures; flyers advertising the women candidates and registration dates for the school and library board elections; a pamphlet describing the organization, voting procedures, and the women candidates; lists of contributors to the organization's deficit (1901?); and lists of members' names, addresses, and status of dues payments (undated).
Includes minutes of weekly meetings, May-November 5, 1900 with information on the group's actions to place candidates on the tickets of all leading political parties; election of officers; resolutions and endorsements particularly favoring a smallpox quarantine hospital and safer school buildings; drafting the constitution; the registration committee's organization of voters in the city's wards; petition reports by wards (September 10); and comments on the primary election (September 20). Also found in the volume are flyers advertising the speeches of women candidates (September 11 and 17); an invitation to a "meet the women candidates" reception (September 15); several drafts of the constitution; duties of the treasurer; a treasurer's report (November); a list of standing committees; and numerous undated newspaper clippings related to the school and library elections.
The record gives the county and city of each association and lists its leaders. The volume also includes names and addresses of the superintendents of Women's Christian Temperance Union franchises in Minnesota, 1892 (pp. 92-100) and of Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association members (pp. 7-9).
An alphabetical list, noting attendance and with whom each delegate would be hosued.
Five separate alphabetical lists kept by L. H. Conser, Petition Committee chairman, of petition return accounts (number returned): for cities with their respective counties (pp.1-6), workers with their addresses (pp. 8-20), federated clubs (p. 24), trade unions (p. 26), and counties (pp. 34-132).