suffragehike

brilliant,timely,provocative.

This is the hike led by "General" Rosalie Jones from New York to Washington, DC for the March 3, 1913 suffrage parade. Further, I believe this is in Newark, New Jersey on February 12, 1913. It would be worth looking at period photos of Newark for comparison. The Buick in the foreground has a New York license plate, number 35227 from 1913, and has “Official Scout” tarped over the engine. The vehicle on the right has plate 8515 which appears to say “NJ” in the top right and “13” below it: New Jersey Plates. The car on the left, 1226, also has a blurry “NJ” with some sort of circular mark and then “13” below it. The layout matches New Jersey’s porcelain plates from 1913, with red text and a metal seal where the circular mark is. Information about this hike is in a number of New York Times and Washington Post articles starting January, 1913. NYTimes Jan 13, 1913 p22 "18-day March to Capital" describes Jones' announcement of the hike in Philadelphia. Wa Post Feb 13 1913 p1 “Cold Feet in Ranks” describes the zero-degree walk in New Jersey on day one, where the core 16 hikers were accompanied by 184 single dayers. Wa Post Feb 18 1913 p1 “Army Escapes Rout” describes the marchers snowballed and stoned by young boys and laughed at by adults near Chester, Pennsylvania – finally they were escorted by cadets on horseback from the Chester Military College. NY Times Feb 24 1913 p11 “Col. Craft Defiant” describes stragglers' arrival in Baltimore. Wa Post Feb 24 1913 p1 “Two Armies Now” describes fourteen of the original sixteen arriving in Baltimore. Wa Post Feb 25 1913 p2 “Pilgrims Not Weary” arranging for Thursday reception at Washington, DC. Wa Post Feb 27 1913 p1 “Race Barrier is Up” describes the hikers’ plans to disband if they are joined by a group of negro women planning to hike with them into Washington – also describes cold shoulder given to marchers who attempted to join them at Laurel, Md with a flag “Votes for negro women”. Wa Post Feb 28, 1913 p1 “Army at City Gates” describes route planned into Washington, and the harsh treatment into Bladensburg, Md – after being jeered the entire way, at College Park the men with them were forced to fight off angry college students in the heavy rain. I thought the "Official Scout" car might be the yellow “ammunition wagon” described in the Washington Post of Feb 13 as driven by Miss Elizabeth Freeman, the “official orator.” But apparently it was really a wagon, as captured in this other Bain photo. The driver of the car resembles Jessie Stubs, pictured here with General Jones, but should be Mrs. Richard Schultz (info below).

I'm still looking for historic photos of Newark, but this could be taken on Broad Street, which runs from the former Hudson tube stop at Park Place Station (NY Times articles on the 12th and 13th indicate they boarded at Fulton Street, and began the hike in Newark after a ride on the tube; NY Times Feb 13 describes a speech at Military Park). The group traveled on Frelinghuysen Avenue, Newark Avenue, and then back on Broad Street. The streetcars in the background would be of the Public Service Railway, running south perhaps to Elizabeth, New Brunswick or Perth Amboy. The hikers went to Elizabeth and then New Brunswick the first day, February 12, 1913. We get conflicting names for the driver of the lead car. From the NY Times February 12, 1913, page 8: "The auto of Maj. Alphonse of Brooklyn, another belonging to Mrs. Richard Schultz, the official scout of the expedition... won fame in the suffrage campaign on Long Island." From New York Times, February 13, 1913, p6: "Then came the scout auto, driven by Miss Oliver Schults."

Okay, I found the spot! (sorry for the multiple posts, and the stream-of-conscious effect) This photo was taken on Broad Street, looking north, just north of West Kinney Street. In Newark, New Jersey. I matched the spire to this photo captioned 950 Broad on newarkstreets.com. The City of Newark landmarks page for visitors indicates that this is Grace Episcopal Church - here's a photo of Grace on Flickr. The dome behind Grace is identified by newarkstreets.com as 920 Broad. On the Newark landmark page, this ends up being the Newark City Hall itself. A photo of the city hall from Flickr. Here's a bird's eye map of the scene, the angle isn't quite right. (** this sentence isn't quite right, see below) The tall building in the background on the right hand side should be at Market Street. Since this is Newark, this is February 12, 1913. They were in Elizabeth soon after noon, so this maybe 10:30am.

This photo was discussed in a The Commons research thread.

Women should be very thankful to her. Yet, how many women libbers know who she was?

Another Bain/LOC photo of the indefatigable "General" Rosalie Jones, leading the suffragists' march from NYC to Albany, New York: More Bain/LOC photos of the suffragist march from NYC to Albany, New York:

Noted woman suffragist and civil rights activist Elisabeth Freeman (1876-1942) is the subject of an entire web site. Note the variant spelling of her first name used on the web site. Note that it does not extend to the site's url. What's up with that?

I started an entry for her: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Freeman_(suffragist)

The hike to Washington started in Newark N.J.. Elisabeth Freeman was among those who said that they would go the entire distance by foot (The day book., February 12, 1913, Image 24, "THEY'RE OFF IN A BUNCH". "... the famous "Votes for Women" wagon, which, with its yellow top bearing suitable inscriptions, won fame in the suffrage campaingn on Long Island... Mrs Elizabeth Freeman, garbed as a gypsy, will drive it on the march to the Capital. Miss Freeman will be the official speaker of the army ..." (NYT, February 12, 1913)