Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association Buttons

The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association was established in 1869 and directed for some 30 years by Isabella Beecher Hooker, sister to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. Despite some limited state success, the organization in 1909 had become moribund until it was revived by Katharine Houghton Hepburn, mother of the actress, with the help of a new generation of workers.

The CWSA worked closely with Alice Paul’s NWP, and adopted the militant English colors of purple, green, and white. However, despite the group’s outward activist appearance, Hepburn felt thwarted by CWSA’s more conservative members, and she resigned prior to the passage of the Federal Amendment.

The suffrage plank button depicted here was probably issued in 1916 when the national parties all came out with suffrage planks in their platforms, giving encouragement to local suffrage groups to demand such support by their own state parties. Major suffrage rallies took place in that year in New Haven in an attempt to influence both Republicans and Democrats.

More information about suffrage buttons and other suffrage artifacts may be found in Kenneth Florey's book "Women's Suffrage Memorabilia: An Illustrated History," McFarland Press, 2013