American Woman Suffrage Postcards, a New Study and Catalog, 720 Color Photos

Description

Book Description:  Kenneth Florey,
American Woman Suffrage Postcards: A Study and Catalog,
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Books, 2015, 368 pages.  This soft cover book catalogs and reproduces in color 720 different American Woman Suffrage postcards, both pro and anti.  The cards are divided into six separate categories: official, real photo, printed photo, holiday cards, commercial cards in singles, and commercial cards in sets. Each section has its own introduction that tells the story behind the cards and examines their “visual rhetoric” in context both with the movement itself and with the general history of postcards.  Along the way there are some fascinating stories such as: the suffrage postcards that were presented to a Congressional Committee after the Washington, D. C. march of 1913 to show a lack of police protection; (2) the photo cards depicting Mrs. May Coke Burleson, the Grand Marshal of that march, who later spent several years in prison for murdering the second wife of her former husband; (3) the pro and anti cards that were illustrated by women; (4) the attempt to depict the suffragist and Votes for Women activist as “the other,” a harridan outside the world of normal humanity; (5) the anti-suffrage float of the Ku Klux Klan,  etc.  The photographic representations of the cards, taken from many of the top suffrage postcard collections in the country, are large, sharp, and clear.  The author is a long-time specialist in Woman Suffrage Memorabilia, has lectured on the subject both here and abroad, appeared on television, written a variety of articles and a previous book on suffrage artifacts, and has served as a consultant on the subject.  The book was published on July 31, 2015, and the price offered here is below the publisher’s asking price.