S01 E06 Illinois: Creative Strategies and Coalitions Lead to Ratification

In this episode on Illinois, Lori Osborne, Director of the Evanston Women’s History Project, discusses the struggle for the women’s vote at sites on the National Votes for Women Trail.

We talk about stories of people and events of the IL campaign:

• Ida B. Wells-Barnett founded the Alpha Suffrage Club with Belle Squire in 1913, which was the first organization to promote suffrage for Black women in Chicago.
• Jane Addams advocated for women’s suffrage in order to enact laws that pertained to improved labor conditions, and legal equity for African Americans and immigrants.
• Catharine Waugh McCulloch was a lawyer who introduced a legislative bill in 1893 to give Illinois women the vote. She fought for its passage for 20 years and finally saw it succeed in 1913.
• Grace Wilbur Trout organized the first suffrage auto tour in 1910 using a neighbor's car. She traveled with three others to 16 towns in five days giving speeches for woman's suffrage.
• Elizabeth Boynton Harbert was a leader in the women's suffrage movement as an author, lecturer, and editor.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Lori Osborne is the Director of the Evanston Women’s History Project in Evanston and specializes in women's history research and historic sites. Lori is the State Coordinator for the NVWT and a past NCWHS board member.

Links to People, Places, Publications

• Illinois and the 19th Amendment (here)
• Suffrage 2020 Illinois website (here)
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett Biographical Sketch (here)
• Visit the Ida B. Wells-Barnett marker in Chicago (here)
• Visit the Ida B. Wells National Monument in Chicago (here)
• Jane Addams Biographical Sketch (here)
• Visit the Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago (here)
• Frances Willard Biographical Sketch (here)
• Catherine Waugh McCulloch Biographical Sketch (here)
• Visit the Catherine Waugh McCulloch marker and park in Evanston (here)
• Grace Wilbur Trout Biographical Sketch (here)
• Visit the Grace Wilbur Trout marker in Oak Park (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to [e-mail]