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Sponsored by the University Archives, Iowa State University Library Copyright 2006
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Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, suffragist, early feminist, political activist, and Iowa State alumna (1880), was born on January 9, 1859 in Ripon, Wisconsin to Maria Clinton and Lucius Lane. At the close of the Civil War, the Lanes moved to a farm near Charles City, Iowa where they remained throughout their lives. Carrie entered Iowa State College in 1877 completing her work in three years. She graduated at the top of her class and while in Ames established military drills for women, became the first woman student to give an oration before a debating society, earned extra money as assistant to the librarian, and was a member of Pi Beta Phi. After graduation she became the high school principal in Mason City and then in 1883 the superintendent of Mason City Schools. In this capacity she met Leo Chapman, editor of the Mason City Republican, and they married in February 1885. After her husband's death in 1886, she spent some time in California as a newspaper reporter and then returned to Iowa to begin her crusade for women's suffrage. She was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-1904 and from 1915 until its goal was reached. She also formed and was president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance for many years. When the women's vote was attained in 1920 Mrs. Catt looked ahead and encouraged the formation of a non-partisan group, the League of Women Voters, a group still viable today. Early in her suffrage work she ran into a classmate from Ames, George W. Catt. They were married in 1890. Until his death in October 1905, he supported his wife's work through his engineering company financially and through his personal support of suffrage. Carrie attained much recognition for her work throughout her life and received many awards such as the Chi Omega in 1941, the Pictorial Review Award for her international disarmament work in 1931, and induction into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame. She donated her entire estate to her alma mater, where she was the first woman to deliver the commencement address. She died in March 1947 at her home in New Rochelle, New York.
Resources for Further Research
Secondary Resources in the Iowa State University Library African American women and the
vote, 1837-1965. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997. Fowler, Robert Booth. Carrie
Chapman Catt: feminist politician (1986) Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth. Women's suffrage in America: an eyewitness history. New York: Facts on File, 1992. General Collection, Parks Library, On Order Graham, Sara Hunter. Woman
suffrage and the new democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Green, Barbara. Spectacular
confessions: autobiography, performative activism, and the sites of suffrage,
1905-1938. Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage
days: stories from the women's suffrage movement. New York: Routledge,
1996. Kraditor, Aileen. The ideas of
the woman suffrage movement, 1890-1920. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1965. On to victory: propaganda plays
of the woman suffrage movement. Boston: Northeastern University Press,
1987. Peck, Mary Gray. Carrie Chapman
Catt: a biography Politics and friendship: letters
from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, 1902-1942. Columbus: Ohio
State University Press, 1990. Porter, Kirk Harold. A history
of suffrage in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1918. Sherr, Lynn. Failure is
impossible: Susan B. Anthony is her own words. New York: Time Books, 1995. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The
selected papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn. African
American women in the struggle for the vote, 1850-1920. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1998. Van Voris, Jacqueline. Carrie
Chapman Catt: a public life. New York: Feminist Press, 1996. Weatherford, Doris. A history of
the American suffragist movement. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998. Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill. New
women of the new South: the leaders of the woman suffrage movement in the
southern states. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Woman suffrage and politics; the
inner story of the suffrage movement, with Nettie Rogers Schuler. New York:
C. Scribner's Sons, 1923. The woman voter's manual by
S.E. Forman and Marjorie Schuler, with an introduction by Carrie Chapman Catt.
New York: Century Company, 1918. Microforms Center, Parks Library The ballot and the bullet.
Compiled by Carrie Chapman Catt. New York: National American Woman Suffrage
Association, 1897. Catt, Carrie Chapman. Carrie
Chapman Catt. Filmed from holdings in the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe
College. Catt, Carrie Chapman. Do you
know? New York: National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1914. Catt, Carrie Chapman. Feminism
and suffrage. New York: National American Women Suffrage Association, 1914? Catt, Carrie Chapman. How to
work for suffrage in an election district or voting precinct. New York:
National Woman Suffrage Association, 1917. Catt, Carrie Chapman. Mrs.
Catt's international address, Congress in Amsterdam, June, 15, 1908.
Warren, Ohio: National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1912. Catt, Carrie Chapman. The nation
calls. New York: National Woman Suffrage Association, 1919. Catt, Carrie Chapman. Our real
enemy. New York: National Woman Suffrage Association, 1918? Hull, Hannah Clothier. Papers,
1889-1958. National American Woman Suffrage
Association Records, 1850-1960 The papers of Carrie Chapman Catt
(Library of Congress). Political parties and women
voters: address delivered by Carrie Chapman Catt to the Congress of the
League of Women Voters, Chicago February 14, 1920. President's annual address
delivered by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt: before the 34th annual convention of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association and the First International Woman
Suffrage Conference, held in Washington, D.C., February 12-18, 1902. President's annual address
delivered by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt: before the 36th annual convention of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association held in Washington D.C., February
11-17, 1904. A true story by Carrie Lane
Chapman. Boston: The Woman's Journal, 1891. War aims. New York:
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, 1917. Woman suffrage by federal
constitutional amendment, compiled by Carrie Chapman Catt. New York:
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, 1917. Woman's century calendar,
edited by Carrie Chapman Catt. New York: National American Woman Suffrage
Association, 1899. Women's studies manuscript
collections from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College. Series I, Woman's
suffrage. The world movement for woman
suffrage, 1904-1911: being the presidential address delivered at Stockholm to
the sixth convention of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, on Tuesday,
June 13, 1911, by Mrs. Chapman Catt. Special Collections Department, Parks Library An address to the Congress of
the United States. New York: National Woman Suffrage Association, 1917 Benjamin, Anne Myra Goodman. A
history of the anti-suffrage movement in the United States from 1895 to 1920:
women against equality. Lewiston : Edwin Mellen Press, 1991. Fowler, Robert Booth. Carrie
Chapman Catt: feminist politician. Boston : Northeastern University Press,
1986. History of woman suffrage.
Edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage. New
York: Fowler & Wells, 1922 Issues in Iowa politics.
Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990. Law, Cheryl. Suffrage and power:
the women's movement, 1918-1928 . New York: St Martin's Press, 1997. Peck, Mary Gray. Carrie Chapman
Catt: a biography. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1944. Victory: how women won it.
New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1940. Who can answer? An address
at the 44th Congress of American Industry, December 8, 1939. The author's
attempt to answer the question, War, how can we get rid of it? New York:
National Association of Manufacturers, 1939 Why wars must cease. New
York: MacMillan Company, 1935. Woman suffrage and politics; the
inner story of the suffrage movement, with Nettie Rogers Schuler. New York:
C. Scribner's Sons, 1923. Woman suffrage by federal
constitutional amendment, compiled by Carrie Chapman Catt. New York:
National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, 1917. |
Resources available online
RS 21/7/3
Carrie Chapman Catt Primary Sources
in the U.S
Resources for Research on Suffrage on the World Wide Web
American Woman
Suffrage-A Pathfinder for Sources in Duke Libraries
American
Women's History: A Research Guide--Suffrage
Anti-Suffrage Movement and
Sentiments Stanton and Anthony Papers Project Online
Women's History
Resources--Suffrage
Woman Suffrage
and the 19th Amendment Women's Studies Manuscript Collections from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College
Library of Congress-American Memory:
"Selections from the
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921" "By Popular Demand: "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920"
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