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City Manager's Office > Projects & Initiatives > 100 Years: Celebrating Cambridge Women's Suffrage

100 Years: Celebrating Cambridge Women's Suffrage

August 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Cambridge is commemorating this important milestone with both a public art project and an event series dedicated to the ongoing story of Women's Suffrage. Join the City as we discuss the historical movement leading to the 19th Amendment's passage, reflect on the Amendment's impact, and look to the future of our democracy.

Go to the 19th Amendment Public Art Project

Featured Events

Aug 26 | 6:00P.M. - 7:00P.M.

19th Amendment Centennial Commemoration-The Fight for Women’s Suffrage: Looking Back, Marching Forward!

Join Suffrage MA 100 for a virtual commemorative event celebrating the centennial of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Event Details
Ongoing

Cambridge Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Bike Ride

The Cambridge Bicycle Committee created a Nineteenth Amendment-themed self-guided bike ride that highlights sites and suffragists important to the movement in Cambridge and beyond.

Event Details

Truth be told

The Truth Be Told collection, a special edition of Evoke, features portraits and artifacts that help tell a more complete story of the history of women's voting rights, with a focus on Black women's activism.

Event Details
Ongoing

Suffrage School

Lessons from Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library on women’s fight for full citizenship. Every module is anchored by a short informal video in which the guest instructor “opens” a primary source from the Schlesinger’s collections, helping students and teachers to understand both the text (or object) and its historical context. Each lesson includes a link to the digitized documents, questions to guide further reflection, and—in some cases—additional readings.

Event Details

Cambridge History

Cambridge is a City steeped in history; and its residents were involved in the Women's Suffrage Movement from the outset. The Cambridge Woman's Suffrage League was formed in 1886, becoming the first of many area organizations dedicated to winning the vote and advancing women's equality and joining a number of state and nation organizations. Pro-suffrage rallies were held in locations all over the City in 1915 leading up to a statewide ballot referendum on the question of granting women the right to vote. In 1918, the City Council passed a resolution in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment's passage. A sampling of suffragists with ties to Cambridge include:

  • Margaret Fuller
  • Harriet A. Jacobs
  • Louisa M. Jacobs (Harriet Jacob's daughter)
  • Phebe Mitchel Kendall
  • Sarah Sprague Jacobs
  • Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson
  • Margaret West Norton Campbell
  • Maria Louise Baldwin
  • Alice Stone Blackwell
  • Hannah M. Tood Carrent
  • Gertrude Wright Morgan
  • Maria Eliza Smith Duhart
  • Grace Allen Fitch Johnson
  • Maud Wood Park
  • Marion Booth Smith Kelley
  • Florence Hope Luscomb
  • Mary Ware Allen
  • Edna Lawrence Fitzgerald
  • Susan G. Walker Fitzgerald
  • Ruth Valeria Jones
  • Mary P.C. Billings
  • Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd
  • Florence Lee Whitman
  • Francis Kellogg Curtis
  • Alice Longfellow
  • Sarah Bull

Stay Connected!

Receive news and updates about the City's celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment's passage, when women won the right to vote.

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Book Lists

If you are interested in learning more about the history of the Women's Suffrage Movement, check out these recent publications.


Contributing Organizations

Previous Events

100 Years of Suffrage: 45 Years of Waiting

Kitchen Table Dialogue on Women’s Voting Rights

Page was posted on 8/27/2019 8:44 AM
Page was last modified on 7/25/2023 4:04 AM
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