Between 1897 and 1911 Anne Fitzhugh Miller (1865-1912) and her mother, Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822-1911), filled seven large scrapbooks with convention programs, letters, press clippings, photographs, pins, ribbons, banners, and other memorabilia. The scrapbooks were created primarily to document the activities of the Geneva Political Equality Club, which the Millers founded in Geneva, New York, in 1897. They also record some of the persistent efforts of a growing number of dedicated women and men working for woman suffrage at the state, national, and international levels. These scrapbooks capture the spirit of this suffrage struggle and provide a unique opportunity to share in the personal frustrations and niggardly victories of a cause in progress.
These scrapbooks are a part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. This collection was donated to the Library of Congress in 1938 by the organization's last president, Carrie Chapman Catt. NAWSA was formed in 1890 as the result of a merger between two rival factions--the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe.
