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  BLUE AND YELLOW SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT POSTER, PROBABLY MADE FOR DISTRIBUTION BY THE EMPIRE STATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, NEW YORK, 1915

Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): 29.25" x 23.25"
Flag Size (H x L): 20" x 13.75"
Description....:
“Vote for Woman Suffrage Nov. 2nd” is the text that appears on this scarce and boldly graphic Suffragette poster, printed in blue and cheddar yellow, with rounded, block lettering in the relief of the unprinted white. The graphics are unusually modern, with the blue appearing in a diagonal swath or “bend,” to use the proper heraldic term, bordered by fine pinstripes, on a yellow ground.

Yellow was the customary color of the suffrage movement in America, coupled with a variety of subordinate colors, primarily black. But the various suffrage organizations did not always follow the same drum and some preferred to distinguish their own identity. Violet and green were the traditional colors of the women's movement in England, but were later adopted in the States by a New York City organization, led by American Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch, who had spent many years in Britain. The combination of blue and yellow seems to have been preferred by the Empire State Campaign Committee, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, which, like other suffrage efforts in New York, was gearing up for a highly anticipated vote for state level voting rights in 1915.

On November 2nd of that year, male voters in New York defeated a state referendum that would have amended the US Constitution to give all women of the state the right to vote. New York was among four eastern states where the issue was put before voters, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. It was unsuccessful in all four states. Public support for the issue had been favorable in New York in that year, where the Suffrage movement was 100,000 members strong. Polls had predicted the likeliness of a win, but it would be two more years before New York would become the first eastern state to approve suffrage, on November 6th, 1917, and not until 1920 when American women would earn the right to vote nationwide. The latter came on the coattails of the U.K., where women obtained voting rights in 1918.

An example of this poster is documented in "The Keynoter: Journal of the American Political Items Conservators," Summer/Fall/Winter 2008 (Women's Suffrage Special Triple Issue), Volume 2008, Number 2-4, p.121.

  Mounting: This is a sandwich mount between 100% cotton twill, black in color, and U.V. protective acrylic. The black fabric has been washed to reduce excess dye. An acid-free agent was added to the wash to further set the dye and the fabric was heat-treated for the same purpose. The mount was placed in a cove-shaped molding that is very dark brown, almost black in color, with red highlights, to which a black-painted and hand-gilded Italian molding was added as a cap.

Condition: There is a small horizontal tear near along the left edge, another along the bottom edge, and a slightly large one along the top edge, accompanied by a punched tear to the right of the letter “E” in the word “vote.” There are small losses in the top and bottom corners on the right-hand side. There are very minor areas that are lighter in the blue bend, which might be original and are almost not worthy of mention. The poster presents wonderfully. The great rarity and desirability of larger scale suffrage textiles and paper ephemera warrants almost any condition.
Collector Level: Advanced Collectors and the Person with Everything
Flag Type:
Star Count:
Earliest Date of Origin: 1915
Latest Date of Origin: 1915
State/Affiliation: New York
War Association:
Price: SOLD
 

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