History of Woman Suffrage

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This page refers to the book by American suffragists. For a history of women's suffrage, see Women's suffrage.

History of Woman Suffrage was produced by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Ida Husted Harper in four volumes from 1887 to 1922. It was a history of the suffrage movement, primarily in the United States.

The first three volumes were composed in a blaze of inspiration in the 1880s, as Anthony and Stanton realized that the earliest pioneers of the women's movement were passing on or would soon be. They are filled with recollections from such pioneering spirits as Lucretia Mott, Clarina I. H. Nichols and Ernestine Rose, as well as each of the co-authors.

The latter three volumes were more records-keeping in nature. They were compiled periodically over the next 35 years as the suffrage movement inched closer to its goal of a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. Anthony's protege Ida Harper edited these volumes, which appeared in 1902 (Vol. 4) and 1922 (Vol. 5-6). Anthony died in 1906.

The authors write in the introduction: "We hope the contribution we have made may enable some other hand in the future to write a more complete history of the most momentous reform that has yet been launched on the world—the first organized protest against the injustice which has brooded over the character and destiny of one-half the human race."

The first volume is dedicated to the memory of several pioneering women in the movement, with the name of Mary Wollstonecraft listed first, above all other names.