Poster for Laura Clay 1916 Speaking Tour in Iowa

A poster featuring Laura Clay (pre-printed for Iowa and dated in 1916) from the Laura Clay collection, University of Kentucky Special Collections and Research Center, Lexington, Kentucky.

The Iowa House and Senate had approved a woman suffrage amendment to the state constitution two sessions in a row, setting up a June 1916 popular vote on the measure. Both Iowa native Carrie Chapman Catt of the NAWSA and Laura Clay (of both the NAWSA and the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference) spoke in Iowa several times to get the vote out to ratify the state constitutional amendment. The June 5, 1916, referendum was defeated mainly in the “wet” counties and through the work of John Irish as well as the Iowa Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (see more on this Association at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/suffrage/id/3541). See more about Iowa's woman suffrage movement in

Noun, Louise R. Strong-Minded Women: The Emergence of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in Iowa. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1969. Available online at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/suffrage/id/2308.