Reuniting two suffrage organizations
After the suffrage movement divided in 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association and American Woman Suffrage Association pursued separate campaigns. The former, associated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, emphasized a federal amendment; the latter concentrated more on winning suffrage state by state. Alice Stone Blackwell, Harriot Stanton Blatch and others helped bring about their merger in 1890.
Stanton became the new association's first president. Anthony succeeded her in 1892, and Carrie Chapman Catt followed Anthony in 1900. The merger combined personnel and networks, while changes in state law and amendment of the federal Constitution remained separate political processes.
Affiliates, publicity and differing tactics
NAWSA's papers at the Library of Congress include reports from state and local affiliates, information on opponents, and campaign songs and plays. These materials show how local organizing accompanied appeals to a wider public. Catt's Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission established an education bureau in which journalist Ida Husted Harper prepared releases and reports and answered critical editorials.
Campaigners for a federal amendment did not always follow one organizational route. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns worked through NAWSA's Congressional Committee before disagreements led them to establish the Congressional Union. That organization subsequently became the National Woman's Party. Their linked personnel histories therefore coexist with distinct institutional records and tactics.
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The amendment era and voter education
The League of Women Voters was founded at NAWSA's Chicago convention on February 14, 1920, before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment was complete. It aimed to help newly enfranchised women understand public affairs and take part in elections. The amendment was ratified later that year.
Conventions, correspondence, affiliate reports and publications document the association's work. Some items in the Library of Congress collection predate 1890 or continue after the suffrage victory, reflecting predecessor activity and later documentation. The collection's earliest date is therefore not the association's founding date. The transition toward the League also followed a different organizational path from the National Woman's Party.