Votes for Women!

This postcard came from the estate of Hazel Alberts Peterson (1898-1989).  The photo was taken in front of the Young Ladies’ Hall at Seattle Seminary, a Free Methodist secondary school that was expanding at this time along with the booming new city nearby.  Hazel Alberts is the girl in white who is seated on the railing of the building.  She appears to be about 13 years old, which would date this to about 1911.  Standing a few feet to her left, holding a small box, is her friend Minnie Isenhath.

Washington State enacted women’s suffrage in 1910, becoming the fifth state to do so, but activists there continued to advocate for national suffrage.  The Methodist Church and its affiliated denominations had long been friendly to the suffrage movement.

It’s hard to read the lettering on the signs, but I can just make out “Votes for Women” and “Equal Rights” on two of them.  Evidently Hazel and her friends were too young to participate in the demonstration, but they may have helped the older students prepare for it.

For more information about Hazel and her family, please see the page titled Seattle Pacific College.