Mary E. J. Colter and the Vote
In October 1911, women in California obtained full suffrage. Federal suffrage was not achieved nationally until 1920 when the 19th amendment was enacted. In addition to California, in 1911 women’s state voting rights were equal to men’s only in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Washington. Women in 28 states could vote in municipal and school elections that year.
The women’s suffrage movement in the US began before decorator and future architect Mary E. J. Colter (1869 – 1958) was born. The same year that California granted full suffrage to women, Colter, then 42, moved to California. She moved from Seattle, where Colter had developed the decorations department of a department store. Since Washington had full suffrage a year earlier, voting rights were not the motivation for the move.
The impetus for Colter’s move was most likely her work. She had recently become a full-time employee of the Fred Harvey hospitality company. Since she traveled a lot, Altadena’s proximity to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway’s passenger station in Los Angeles made it a convenient location. Colter bought a small house in Altadena in 1911. Her sister Harriet would make the house her full-time home. Colter divided her time among this house, an apartment in Kansas City where employer Fred Harvey was headquartered, and “on the line,” traveling among properties managed by Fred Harvey and reached by the Santa Fe Railway.
“The Awakening,” Henry Mayer, 1915 (Library of Congress)
Records from 1914 show Colter registered to vote with her Altadena address, although she chose not to state a party affiliation at that time. In the voting records from 1920, however, Colter declared herself a Republican. Her sister continued to decline to state an affiliation.
Many citizens were unhappy with Democratic president Woodrow Wilson’s actions regarding US involvement in World War I during his two terms in office. The Republican Party’s platform read in part, “The outstanding features of the Democratic administration have been complete unpreparedness for war and complete unpreparedness for peace.” Republican Warren Harding won a landslide victory over his Democratic opponent in the 1920 presidential election. Today Harding’s administration is most noted for its corruption.
Read Mary Colter, World War I, and Women's Suffrage about Colter’s contribution to the war effort.
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Sources:
California State Library, Sacramento, Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968.
Ancestry.com
Mary E.J. Colter, “Untitled typescript biography.” Heard Museum Digital Library. c. 1948-1958.
Library of Congress, “Presidential Election of 1920: A Resource Guide.”
Arnold Berke, Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.