The Library of Virginia’s exhibition, We Demand: Women’s Suffrage in Virginia commemorated the 2020 centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote.
The Library’s exhibition closed on May 28, 2021, but our traveling exhibition is on the road. Check out the schedule to see if it will be on display near you.
Library of Virginia staff created short videos highlighting sections of We Demand while our gallery was closed to help stop the spread of Covid-19. View the In the Gallery playlist on the Library’s YouTube channel.
View our online exhibition Unfinished Business. It highlights the roadblocks and ongoing work that has surrounded voting rights in Virginia since the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Virginia suffragists were a remarkable group of talented and dedicated women who have largely been forgotten.
Learn more about these women who campaigned for the vote.
Explore our timeline of the campaign for woman suffrage in Virginia.
Equal Suffrage League Chapters
Learn more about local chapters of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia with our map. After founding the Equal Suffrage League in 1909, members began organizing local leagues across the state, establishing more than 140 by 1918.
Equal Suffrage League Records
Explore the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia Records online in the Library’s catalog. Select the Finding Aid link and then select folders with links to digital images. Each link contains digitized images for all the items in that folder (unless otherwise noted). Keyword searching is not yet available.
Find more in The UncommonWealth Blog
Read UncommonWealth blog posts about the campaign for woman suffrage in Virginia.
Debating Woman Suffrage
Listen to some of the arguments made by suffragists and anti-suffragists as read by Library of Virginia staff.
The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia is a new book, available in The Virginia Shop, that explores the remarkable achievements of women who fought for the right to vote in the commonwealth. Authors Brent Tarter, Marianne E. Julienne, and Barbara Batson—whose research unearthed new information and discovered women who have never before appeared in history books—are also the curators of the Library of Virginia’s exhibition We Demand: Women’s Suffrage in Virginia.
The Library of Virginia issued a call for submissions in 2020 for textile banners addressing the theme of Women’s Suffrage. Our goal was to involve Virginia’s artist and artisan communities in creative expression around women’s suffrage and equality, both historic and current. View our Suffrage Banners Gallery HERE.