Timeline of women's suffrage in Pennsylvania

1852

• First state women's rights convention is held in West Chester.[1]

1854

• The Fifth National Women's Rights Convention is held in Philadelphia.[2]

1866

• The Equal Rights Association formed in Philadelphia was created to support African American and women's suffrage.[3]

1869

• December 22: The Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association (PWSA) was formed.[3]

1871

• Caroline Burnham Kilgore attempts to vote in Philadelphia, is denied and takes her case to court.[4]

1872

• The Citizen's Suffrage Association is formed in Philadelphia where it affiliates with the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).[5]

1876

• Suffragists are denied a booth at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, but still manage to take the stage in front of an audience of 150,000 onlookers at Independence Square.[6] Susan B. Anthony reads from A Declaration of Rights for Women.[6]

1885

• Matilda Hindman goes to Harrisburg to lobby the state legislature to remove the word "male" as a description of a voter in the state.[7]

1892

• The Woman Suffrage Society of Philadelphia is formed.[5]

Lucy Kennedy Miller, c. 1900

1901

• November 26: State women's suffrage convention is held in Philadelphia.[8]

1902

• November 7: State women's suffrage convention is held in Philadelphia.[9]
• December 5: The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends creates an Equal Rights Association.[10]

1903

• November 7: State women's suffrage convention is held in Philadelphia.[10]

1904

• The Allegheny County Equal Rights Association (ACERA) is created.[11]
• November 3–5: The state suffrage convention is held in Easton.[10]

1905

• November 14: The state suffrage convention takes place in Philadelphia.[10]

1906

• November 6–8: The State suffrage convention is held in Kennett Square.[10]

1907

• November 6–8: ACERA hosts the PWSA convention in Pittsburgh.[12][10]

1908

• November 4–6: The state suffrage convention is held in Norristown.[13]

1909

• November 22–24: The state suffrage convention is held in Newton, Pennsylvania.[14]

1910

• Headquarters for PWSA is formed in Philadelphia.[15]
• The new Equal Franchise Federation of Western Pennsylvania replaces ACERA.[11]
• The state suffrage convention is held in Harrisburg.[14]
• The Pennsylvania Federation of Labor pledged to support women's suffrage.[14]

1911

The Pittsburgh Post, "Suffragists Are Busy with Spade, Rake, and Garden Trowel" April 2, 1913

• March 14: Women's suffrage amendment hearing takes place in the state legislature, and the amendment is referred to a commission.[15]
• September 30: Alice Paul's open-air suffrage campaign has its last stop in Independence Square in Philadelphia.[16]
• Suffragists set up headquarters in Pittsburgh and create the "Pittsburgh Plan."[17]

1912

• March: Pennsylvania chapter of the Men's League for Woman Suffrage is formed.[14]
• March 12: The Electoral Commission rules that women's suffrage is not "germane to its task."[18]
• March 22: The state women's suffrage commission reports during a hearing at the state legislature.[19]
• March 29: Anti-suffragist, Minnie Bronson, speaks at the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Music.[20]
• November 21: A second open-air rally is held in Independence Square in Philadelphia.[16]
• November 26–27: State suffrage convention is held in Philadelphia. It is suggested that suffrage headquarters are moved.[14]
• December: State suffrage headquarters are moved to Harrisburg.[14]

1913

• January: Women's suffrage resolution is introduced in the state legislature, and passes narrowly. It will have to pass a second time to go to a voter referendum.[21]
• First women's suffrage parade in the state takes place in Perry.[6]
• July 8: A women's suffrage parade is held in Erie.[22][23]
• August: Woman's suffrage day at the Granger's picnic in Williams Grove.[24]
• October 28–30: PWSA meets in Pittsburgh, where money for the upcoming campaign is pledged, including a $10,000 pledge from philanthropist, Elizabeth Dohrman Thaw.[25][26]

1914

• August: Suffragists and anti-suffragists campaign at the Lebanon County fair.[27]
• The first anti-suffrage convention in the United States takes place in Harrisburg.[28]
• Suffrage School is held in Pittsburgh.[28]
• November 19–24: State suffrage convention is held in Scranton.[26]

1915

Pennsylvania women's suffrage referundum map 1915, produced by Pennsylvania Men's League for Women's Suffrage

• March 31: The Justice Bell is forged at the Meneely Bell Foundry.[29]
• June 23: Suffragists take the Justice Bell on a tour of the state starting in Sayre.[29][30]
• October: Suffragists show scores for the World Series at the Pittsburgh headquarters and hand out suffrage literature to the crowds that come to see the scores.[28]
• November 2: The women's suffrage amendment is defeated at the polls.[31]
• November 30: The state suffrage convention is held in Philadelphia.[32]

1916

• Carrie Chapman Catt addresses a convention held in Harrisburg.[32]
• July 7: The Pennsylvania Suffrage Flag is dedicated.[33][34]
• November 21–24: The state suffrage convention is held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.[32]

1919

• June 24: Pennsylvania ratifies the 19th Amendment.[35]
• November: PWSA dissolves and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania is formed.[36]

1920

Catherine Wentworth with replica Liberty Bell outside Independence Hall September 1920 for 19th Amendment celebration

• September 25: The Justice Bell is finally rung at a celebration of women winning the right to vote where Katharine Wentworth is the first to ring the bell.[29]
• November 2: Pennsylvania women vote for the first time.[33]
• November 18: PWSA dissolves and reforms as the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Pennsylvania.[37]

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Brookman, Laura Lou (1970). Fifty Years Old and Proud of It: The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Looks Back to 1920 and on to the Future (PDF). Philadelphia: League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.
• Brown, Ira V. (April 1965). "The Woman's Rights Movement in Pennsylvania, 1848-1873". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 32 (2): 153–165. JSTOR 27770328 – via JSTOR.
• Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
• Johnstone, Barbara (2020). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Southwestern Pennsylvania: A Research Guide (PDF). Pittsburgh: Senator John Heinz History Center.
• Leach, Roberta J. (July 1984). "Jennie Bradley Roessing and the Fight for Woman Suffrage in Pennsylvania". Western Pennsylvania History. 67 (3): 189–211 – via Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.
• Roessing, Jennie Bradley (November 1914). "The Equal Suffrage Campaign in Pennsylvania". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 56: 153–160. doi:10.1177/000271621405600119. JSTOR 1011990. S2CID 144053341 – via JSTOR.
• Zarro, Jennifer (2020). Making Her Mark (PDF). Philadelphia: Free Library of Philadelphia.