National American Woman Suffrage Association Buttons

Although NAWSA served as a distribution network for suffrage supplies throughout the country and eventually developed its own publishing house for that purpose, the Association produced a surprisingly small number of buttons and badges for the campaign. Their most famous was the small generic “Votes for Women” pin in black on gold, a color scheme that they used for other pieces.

Their first button, manufactured in 1896, was a stickpin with the date of the Seneca Falls Convention, 1848, set in ruby glass, a design that they also used in their stationery. The “I Am a Voter” pin originated from an idea that Jeanette Rankin proposed for the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, reminding Eastern women that many of their counterparts in the West could vote and that they should, therefore, double their efforts. “Ballots for Both” was intended to allay the fears of some men that “Votes for Women” possibly meant taking away votes for men.