LaCroix, Allison. National Woman's Party and Meaning Behind Their Purple, White and Gold Textiles. National Woman's Party at Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. Washington D.C.

Author: LaCroix, Allison.

Title: National Woman's Party and Meaning Behind Their Purple, White and Gold Textiles.

Publisher: National Woman's Party at Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. Washington D.C.

A short essay by an intern with the Sewall-Belmont House in Washington D.C. (the former home of Alice Paul) who is describing her work with the collections staff to inventory the textiles in the National Woman's Party collection. She explains the tri-color motif used for branding the woman suffrage movement.

Purple = loyalty, steadfastness (first described by the British suffragist Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence)

White = purity of purpose in both public and private life (this color first used in the US as a ribbon for women in the temperance movement but also by the British suffrage activitists)

Yellow or Gold = light of liberty and life (came from the 1867 Kansas suffrage amendment campaign led by the American Equal Rights Association, representing then the yellow/gold sunflower, stafe flower of Kansas) - this also offered a different set of colors from the British suffrage movement which had settled on purple, white and green.