Carrie Chapman Catt papers

The Carrie Chapman Catt papers house a wide range of material in the collection, including correspondence & memorabilia, cartoons, and photographs. The collection focuses on the history of the women's suffrage movement, with material pertaining both directly to Catt herself and to the movement as a whole.

The collection consists of five boxes and is organized into three different series: “Correspondence,” “Cartoons,” and “Photograph Albums.”

“Correspondence” contains C. C. Catt's personal correspondence and some official correspondence of women's suffrage groups. A good portion of this correspondence concerns the 1916 Democratic National Convention and letters of support for the Women’s Suffrage Platform. The collection also holds Catt’s correspondence with Anna Howard Shaw, Marion Edwards Park, and Woodrow Wilson, among others. Additionally, the collection contains both print and manuscript memorabilia from a variety of women's suffrage conventions and lectures. This section also includes suffrage ephemera: commemorative plaques and C. C. Catt's personal newspaper-clipping scrapbooks.

“Cartoons” contains approximately sixty editorial cartoons pertaining to suffrage that appeared in newspapers around the country from ca. 1912 to ca.1920.

“Photograph Albums” of the C. C. Catt Collection consist of six of Catt’s personal albums, from ca. 1840 to ca. 1940. The albums contain approximately 815 photographs related to the women's suffrage movement, including portraits and records of parades and other demonstrations and events. The albums cover both the American and international suffrage movements. People and/or events depicted include: Louisa May Alcott, Dr. Josephine Baker, Carrie Chapman Catt, Emmeline Pankhurst, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Mary Wollstonecraft, Woodrow Wilson, and hundreds of women involved in the suffrage movement.

Carrie Chapman Catt was a feminist and activist in the first half of the twentieth century. This collection evidences her national and international connections, her feminist values, and her personal life. Additionally, the cartoons and other suffrage ephemera provide context for the political clime, and the many varied opinions invoked by the fight for women’s suffrage.