"Woman's Voice is Needed in Government": North Central College Students and Woman Suffrage, 1888-1914

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. But the history of woman suffrage, as people in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries called it, is much longer. At North Central College, it goes back to at least 1888, and involved women prominent on campus and in the town of Naperville. This exhibit tells the story of woman suffrage at North Central through journals, photographs, and newspaper articles, highlighting how it mirrors the larger story of woman suffrage in the United States, with its strengths and successes as well as its challenges and shortcomings.

Credits

North Central College Archives