Considering that one century ago, Chicago was home to one of the nation's most robust local women's suffrage movements, one has to wonder what pioneers like Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells and Grace Wilbur Trout would have said about the city's "extremely low" voter turnout at Tuesday's primary election.
Nevertheless, in the midst of Women's History Month, HuffPost Chicago has partnered with the Chicago History Museum to offer a gallery of photographs in honor of the Chicago women who toiled for voter's rights. The suffragettes' efforts led to a big victory nearly a century ago when, in 1913, Illinois women won the right to vote in presidential and local races.
The Land of Lincoln then became the first state east of the Mississippi River that allowed women to vote in the presidential election. Illinois later became among the first state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, which passed in 1919 but was not ratified by a requisite number of states until August 18, 1920.
The League of Women Voters also has Windy City roots, as it was founded as "a mighty experiment" at the Victory Convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Chicago in 1920.
Photos, unless otherwise noted, appear courtesy of the Chicago History Museum. Click here if you are interested in obtaining a copy of any of the museum's images included in the slideshow. Their call numbers have been included for your reference.
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