Deerfield Arts & Crafts home page

Ideas

That "band of industrious and brainy women"

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Deerfield and the Suffrage Movement

In addition to transforming the economic and cultural landscape of the town, Deerfield's artisans were actively involved in the most pressing woman's issue of their time suffrage. In 1909 the Society of Deerfield Industries invited Representative J. W. Haigis to speak on "Woman Suffrage" in the Village Room. In 1914 Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework designer Ellen Miller was a founding member of a Deerfield equal suffrage committee, and designer Margaret Whiting read a paper "Why I am a Suffragette" to the Woman's Alliance. That summer some of the women in town hung "Votes for Women" banners from the Village Room and Deerfield homes. On June 25, 1919, Massachusetts became the 8th state to ratify the 19th amendment. The amendment was enacted on August 18th, 1920.