Mobilizing Baltimore

Invitation from Mary Elizabeth Garrett (Enoch Pratt Free Library).

During the February, 1906 NAWSA convention, Mary Elizabeth Garrett held a reception at her mansion in honor of Susan B. Anthony and other prominent guests. A few houses away, her anti-suffrage sister-in-law, Mary Frick Garrett, held a rival party for suffrage opponents.

The long-smoldering suffrage movement rekindled in Baltimore in 1906, when the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) brought such luminaries as Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe before an audience of philanthropists, professionals, and college students.

Many educated, middle- and upper-class women like Dr. Mary Sherwood “hadn’t thought much on the subject,” or feared taking a public stance. Meetings with Anthony, engineered by Mary Elizabeth Garrett, proved a turning point. Local groups formed to distribute literature, canvas in the streets, and lead marches.

The Just Government League, a Baltimore group led by women from the medical community, adopted creative tactics in their face-to-face campaign to sway both male voters and undecided women. Their social and professional status ensured them a respectful hearing, but many were reluctant to push the limits of propriety as a militant wing of the movement emerged in 1917.