Description: This photograph is a portrait of Judge Florence Allen, taken by Standiford Studio in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1923. The Ohio League of Women Voters nominated Judge Florence Allen to the League's National Roll of Honor for her women's rights activism and achievements in politics. As a young woman, Allen (1884-1966) graduated from Western Reserve University in 1904, and worked as a music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer while pursuing a graduate degree in political science and constitutional law at Western Reserve University. She received her master's degree in 1908, and soon moved to New York City to work for the New York League for the Protection of Immigrants while earning a law degree from the New York University School of Law. After receiving her JD, Allen returned to Cleveland, where she gained admittance to the Ohio bar and established her own law practice. She was appointed Assistant Prosecutor of Cuyahoga County in 1919, and was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas the following year. In 1922, Allen won a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court. Not only was she the first woman to serve on Ohio's highest court, but she was also the first woman to serve on the supreme court of any state. Allen continued to serve as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court until 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to the Sixth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals. Once again, Allen established a precedent as the first woman judge in a federal court. She eventually became chief judge of the court, a position she held until her retirement in 1959. This item comes from the League of Women Voters of Ohio Collection. The League of Women Voters was first formed at the national level in early 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Soon, additional leagues began to form at the state and local level, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio being organized in May 1920 in Columbus. The League was first formed to empower women to use their newfound right to vote, and today its primary purpose remains citizen education. To this goal, it supports voter registration efforts, provides information on candidates and issues, sponsors debates and offers publications on public policy and voter engagement topics. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS354_B10_LWVO_FlorenceAllen
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; League of Women Voters of Ohio; Judges -- Ohio
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio);
 

Description: Portrait of Lucretia Heston McPherson of Columbus, Ohio. McPherson (1874-1923) was included on the "Ohio State Honor Roll" from the League of Women Voters of Ohio, ca. 1930, which listed prominent Ohio women involved in the suffrage movement. Her brief biography from the Honor Roll reads: "Lucretia Heston McPherson (1874-1923) was president of the Columbus Good Government League which was organized in 1917 from the Franklin County Suffrage Association to secure municipal suffrage, a member of the Board of the Franklin County Suffrage Association, member of the Columbus Board of Education and a leader in all causes for civic betterment." This photograph comes from the League of Women Voters of Ohio Collection. The League of Women Voters was first formed at the national level in early 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Soon, additional leagues began to form at the state and local level, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio being organized in May 1920 in Columbus. The League was first formed to empower women to use their newfound right to vote, and today its primary purpose remains citizen education. To this goal, it supports voter registration efforts, provides information on candidates and issues, sponsors debates and offers publications on public policy and voter engagement topics. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS354_B10_LWVO_LucretiaHestonMcPherson
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; League of Women Voters of Ohio; Suffragists; Activism
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio);
 

Description: Portrait of Caroline M. Severance of Cleveland, Ohio. Severance (1820-1914) was included on the "Ohio State Honor Roll" from the League of Women Voters of Ohio, ca. 1930, which listed prominent Ohio women involved in the suffrage movement. Her brief biography from the Honor Roll reads: "Caroline M. Seymour Severance was born in New York in 1820 and died in Los Angeles in 1914. Mrs. Severance spent the first sixteen years of her married life in the frontier city of Cleveland. She was the first woman to lecture in Cleveland in behalf of woman's suffrage. Later she returned to New England, where with Julia Ward Howe and others she organized the first Woman's Club of New England, and became its first president. Moving later to Los Angeles, she was the founder of the first kindergarten there. She was a Unitarian, an abolishionist, devoted to the cause of world peace, a staunch believer in woman's suffrage, in birth control, and in a single standard of morals. She was known as 'The Mother of Clubs.'" This photograph comes from the League of Women Voters of Ohio Collection. The League of Women Voters was first formed at the national level in early 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Soon, additional leagues began to form at the state and local level, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio being organized in May 1920 in Columbus. The League was first formed to empower women to use their newfound right to vote, and today its primary purpose remains citizen education. To this goal, it supports voter registration efforts, provides information on candidates and issues, sponsors debates and offers publications on public policy and voter engagement topics. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS354_B10_LWVO_CarolineSeverance
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; League of Women Voters of Ohio; Suffragists; Activism; Educators
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: Portrait of Mrs. Katherine B. Claypole of Akron, Ohio. Claypole (1846-1901) was included on the "Ohio State Honor Roll" from the League of Women Voters of Ohio, ca. 1930, which listed prominent Ohio women involved in the suffrage movement. Her brief biography from the Honor Roll reads: "Katherine Benedicta Claypole (Mrs. Edward W.) Mrs. Claypole, of Akron, who did pioneer suffrage work for many years in Ohio and who was secretary of the Ohio Suffrage Association at the time the Ohio School bill was passed, was a member of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, the Ohio State Suffrage Association, and the American Association for the advancement of Science." This photograph comes from the League of Women Voters of Ohio Collection. The League of Women Voters was first formed at the national level in early 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Soon, additional leagues began to form at the state and local level, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio being organized in May 1920 in Columbus. The League was first formed to empower women to use their newfound right to vote, and today its primary purpose remains citizen education. To this goal, it supports voter registration efforts, provides information on candidates and issues, sponsors debates and offers publications on public policy and voter engagement topics. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS354_B10_LWVO_KatherineClaypole
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; League of Women Voters of Ohio; Suffragists; Activism
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio);
 

Description: Portrait of Miss Bettie Wilson of Cincinnati, Ohio. Wilson (1850 - 1929) was included on the "Ohio State Honor Roll" from the League of Women Voters of Ohio, ca. 1930, which listed prominent Ohio women involved in the suffrage movement. Her brief biography from the Honor Roll reads: "Miss Wilson, who was a convincing speaker and never lost an opportunity to push the cause of suffrage, was a teacher in the public schools of Cincinnati for forty years. She was elected in 1896 to the school board of Hartwell before it was annexed to Cincinnati, and from 1910-20 served as an officer of the Hamilton County Suffrage Association." This photograph comes from the League of Women Voters of Ohio Collection. The League of Women Voters was first formed at the national level in early 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Soon, additional leagues began to form at the state and local level, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio being organized in May 1920 in Columbus. The League was first formed to empower women to use their newfound right to vote, and today its primary purpose remains citizen education. To this goal, it supports voter registration efforts, provides information on candidates and issues, sponsors debates and offers publications on public policy and voter engagement topics. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS354_B10_LWVO_BettieWilson
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; League of Women Voters of Ohio; Suffragists; Activism; Educators;
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio);
 

Description: Women factory workers during World War II, 1941-1945. After the United States entered World War II, there was a labor shortage due to the departure of men who enlisted or were drafted into the armed forces. To fill the gap, more than 6 million women became war workers. Those who were involved in the production of military hardware became Women Ordnance Workers, or W.O.W.s. Spurred on by higher wages and a propaganda poster featuring a muscle-bound "Rosie the Riveter" exclaiming "We Can Do It!" millions of American women helped assemble bombs, build tanks, weld hulls, and grease locomotives. Most were married, 60 percent were over 35, and a third had children under 14. On average, women war workers were paid only 60 percent of what men performing the same work were paid. The government insisted that "Rosie the Riveter" was a temporary response to war. "A woman is a substitute" claimed a War Department brochure, "like plastic instead of metal." Indeed, many women lost their high-paying positions after the war. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00102
Subjects: Manufacturing industries--Ohio; Ohio Economy--Economy--Labor; Ohio Women; World War II
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1935-1965, this photograph shows two inmates in costumes dancing in a performance at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. In 1911, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the establishment of a separate women’s penal institution. On September 1, 1916, the Ohio Reformatory for Women opened in Marysville, Ohio, with a population of 34 inmates. When Marguerite Reilley was appointed superintendent of the Reformatory in 1935, she found dirty and unkempt inmates with excessively restricted living habits. She instituted the “human being” program which provided recreation, entertainment, jobs, and vocational training for the inmates. State Archived Series 1679 AV consists of 234 photographs which illustrate daily life in the Ohio Reformatory for Women, as well as photographs of the buildings and grounds, superintendents Marguerite Reilley and Martha Wheeler, and notorious inmate Velma West. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1679AV_B01_F02_005
Subjects: Photography--Ohio; Ohio Reformatory for Women; Prisons; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; African American Women; Entertainment; Costumes
Places: Marysville (Ohio); Union County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reproduction of a portrait depicting Victoria Claflin Woodhull from Homer, Ohio. Woodhull was one of the most controversial women of the 19th century. Rejecting conventional women's roles, she toured the country speaking on such topics as women's rights and social reform for women. In 1871, she testified before Congress in an attempt to gain women's rights through the citizenship guarantees of the 14th and 15th amendments. When Congress denied her claims, Woodhull decided to run for president of the United States the following year as the Equal Rights Party Candidate. She and her sister Tennessee Claflin became the first women to own and operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street, and also published a newspaper titled "Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly." Woodhull was at the center of many scandals and eventually even the most radical members of the woman's rights movement tried to distance themselves from her. She moved to England in 1877 and later married an Englishman. She died in 1927. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01099
Subjects: Women's rights; Women social reformers - Ohio; Ohio History--Presidents and Politics; Political campaigns
Places: Homer (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1935-1965, this photograph shows part of the hospital at the Ohio Reformatory for Women with women laying on gurneys, and a group of nurses tending to them. One of the women is identified as Mrs. Ross. In 1911, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the establishment of a separate women’s penal institution. On September 1, 1916, the Ohio Reformatory for Women opened in Marysville, Ohio, with a population of 34 inmates. When Marguerite Reilley was appointed superintendent of the Reformatory in 1935, she found dirty and unkempt inmates with excessively restricted living habits. She instituted the “human being” program which provided recreation, entertainment, jobs, and vocational training for the inmates. State Archived Series 1679 AV consists of 234 photographs which illustrate daily life in the Ohio Reformatory for Women, as well as photographs of the buildings and grounds, superintendents Marguerite Reilley and Martha Wheeler, and notorious inmate Velma West. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1679AV_B01_F08_002
Subjects: Photography--Ohio; Ohio Reformatory for Women; Prisons; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Health and hygiene
Places: Marysville (Ohio); Union County (Ohio)
 

Description: Large group of men and several women gathered outside of Family Groceries in Waynesville, Ohio, during the Women's Temperance Crusade of 1873-1874. The women were protesting the sale of alcoholic beverages. The Temperance movement was an organized effort during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to limit or outlaw the consumption and production of alcoholic beverages in the United States. In 1874, a group of Cleveland women established the Women's Christian Temperance Union. This organization pressured the Ohio and federal governments to implement Prohibition, which would outlaw the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol. From the mid 1870s to the early 1890s, the WCTU was the major organization within the United States seeking Prohibition. Its members utilized rather extreme tactics to convince Americans to abstain from alcohol. Members picketed bars and saloons, prayed for the souls of the bar patrons, and also tried to block the entryways of establishments that sold liquor. By the 1890s, groups such as the American Anti-Saloon League had joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union in its push for Prohibition. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC1337_001_01
Subjects: Women social reformers - Ohio; Other--Social Welfare; Temperance--History; Alcoholic beverages; Demonstrations
Places: Waynesville (Ohio); Warren County (Ohio);
 

Description: Men and women gathered outside a store in Waynesville, Ohio, ca. 1873-1874. Signs indicate that the store housed a grocery and saloon. The women were participating in the Women's Temperance Crusade and protesting the sale of alcoholic beverages. The men may have gathered to support or ridicule their efforts. The Temperance movement was an organized effort during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to limit or outlaw the consumption and production of alcoholic beverages in the United States. In 1874, a group of Cleveland women established the Women's Christian Temperance Union. This organization pressured the Ohio and federal governments to implement Prohibition, which would outlaw the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol. From the mid 1870s to the early 1890s, the WCTU was the major organization within the United States seeking Prohibition. Its members utilized rather extreme tactics to convince Americans to abstain from alcohol. Members picketed bars and saloons, prayed for the souls of the bar patrons, and also tried to block the entryways of establishments that sold liquor. By the 1890s, groups such as the American Anti-Saloon League had joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union in its push for Prohibition. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC1337_002
Subjects: Demonstrations; Temperance--History; Alcoholic beverages; Women social reformers - Ohio; Activists
Places: Waynesville (Ohio); Warren County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows Amy G. Maher, the first president of the League of Women Voters of Ohio and the founder of the Toledo League of Women Voters. The League of Women Voters was first formed at the national level in early 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Soon, additional leagues began to form at the state and local level, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio being organized in May 1920 in Columbus. The League was first formed to empower women to use their newfound right to vote, and today its primary purpose remains citizen education. To this goal, it supports voter registration efforts, provides information on candidates and issues, sponsors debates and offers publications on public policy and voter engagement topics. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS354_B10_LWVO_AmyGMaher_01
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; League of Women Voters of Ohio;
Places: Toledo (Ohio); Lucas County (Ohio)