Starting of Suffragette’s Parade Coming Up Penna. Ave.

On March 3, 1913, American women made history by marching on the capital en masse before a crowd of more than 500,000. The procession concluded with the tableau Liberty and Her Attendants. Dedicated to the ideals of American womanhood, the performance took place on the steps of the Treasury Building. As trumpets sounded, Columbia, the female personification of the United States, summoned allegorical figures including Liberty, Justice, Charity, Peace, Plenty, and Hope.

The renowned classical dancer Florence Fleming Noyes made a dramatic entrance as Liberty. Accompanied by the “Triumphal March” from the opera Aida, she hovered for several minutes and then swept down the Treasury steps, with attendants trailing behind her. Liberty and Her Attendants was one in a set of six “real photo” postcards depicting the 1913 suffrage procession and pageant. The postcards were intended to be sent out “one by one” to those who were unable to attend the event.