Margaret Moss Dowsett Collection

MSA SC 4247

Dates

1914/01/07

Medium

photograph (copy)

Restrictions

No restrictions

Storage

B5/17/02/Drawer 4

Description

Panorama photograph of members of the Just Government League (this contingent known as Army of the Severn) [a women's suffrage organization], bearing banners and wearing sashes, standing before the steps of the main portico of the State House. Caption reads: "The Army of the Severn at the State House[,] Annapolis Maryland. Jan. 7th, 1914." Maggie Boone Moss is no. 12 in group of women pictured; identities of other suffragists unknown presently.

This is a copy photograph of an original by the Schutz Studio of Washington, DC.

History

Edith Houghton Hooker, in 1909, organized the Just Government League and affiliated her organization with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1910, the defeat of suffrage in the Maryland General Assembly led Hooker and others to believe that, while they should continue to press the state legislature for suffrage legislation, the answer lay in passage of a national constitutional amendment.

Hooker also took to the streets using an automobile, from which she conducted open air meetings in various locations throughout the state. In 1913 alone, the Just Government league held 214 "parlor" meetings, with a total attendance of over 19,000 people, conducted 86 open air meetings, and distributed suffrage literature to more that 114,000 people. By 1915, the Just Government League had 17,000 members.

Collection Inventory

Series 1: Photograph

Microfilm Inventory