1
2
3
4
5
6
7
When she came to Waltham to work as an artist, architect and activist, Florence Luscomb brought creative new ways of winning public support.
“Our leaflets are unpacked, our flag erected, we borrow a Moxie [soda] box…and proceed to the busiest corner of the town square. Our chief mounts the box, the banner over her shoulder and starts talking to the air…. Within ten minutes our audience has increased from twenty-five to five hundred.” Florence Luscomb, “Open Air Campaigning,” ca. 1909. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Young suffragists found their public voice.
“I had always thought that there were a few cranks pushing [women’s suffrage]. But that night I saw that it was earnest, intelligent, refined women, who had convictions and were not afraid to stand up and say so.” A Boston shopkeeper to Florence Luscomb, “Open Air Campaigning,” ca. 1909.
Florence, her mother and her friend Margaret marched in the first massive organized political protest in Washington, D.C., the day before a presidential inauguration.
“At the outset, I decided to use no militant methods whatsoever.” — Margaret Foley, Boston Post, Oct 1, 1911.
The mistreatment of parade marchers and their inadequate protection made newspaper headlines in every state. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Using banners, floats and new forms of transportation, activists broadcast their ideas far and wide.
“[Parades] were some of the most effective bits of propaganda…. Just why seeing women walk down the street in parade should convince men to vote is a mystery, but it did so by the thousands.” —Florence Luscomb, Oral History, 1973. Photo: Waltham Historical Society.
Women posted 100,000 copies of Florence's artwork in shop windows and on telephone poles, barns and fences across the state. They even dressed up as bluebirds!
“Everywhere we tacked up our “Votes for Women” bluebirds, occasionally stopping a farmer to ask him to assist us in wielding the hammer. I am sorry to relate that many a man seemed to have no knack in assisting.” Boston Globe, Aug 15, 1915.
Tin suffrage bluebird sign, 1915. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Florence's friend Margaret dropped thousands of suffrage leaflets in many languages over the mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts, from a hot air balloon!
“No state was ever carried for suffrage until it was sown ankle deep with leaflets” — Florence Luscomb. Image: Margaret Foley Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Suffrage flag, 1913-1920