Editors' Introduction

Abstract

Editors' Introduction Susan Goodier, Thomas D. Beal, and D.L. Noorlander Publishing an issue of the New York History journal in celebration of the centennial of women's right to vote in New York State seemed both appropriate and necessary. This issue is the product of nearly three years of work. All of the articles included here, representing the latest scholarship of nine historians, help tell the complicated story of the more than seven decades of commitment on the part of three generations of women to win the right to vote in New York State. But this is not just a New York State story. Once women won New York, they threw their considerable talents and energies into the national movement. These essays will continue to be meaningful as we move forward to the centennial of the federal amendment granting women the right to vote in the United States. Within the general topic of woman suffrage, the topics explored in these essays vary widely. One group of articles included here focuses on the woman's suffrage movement in the nineteenth century. These include Laura Ping's article about the dynamic Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, who refused to pay her taxes until she had the right to vote, Gaylynn Welch's article about the winning of the right to vote in school board elections in 1880, and Lauren Santangelo's article about elite suffragists in Gilded Age Manhattan. Four of the essays describe the early twentieth-century aspects of the story, inviting us to see the change over time as women moved closer to enfranchisement. Shannon Risk shifts our attention to suffrage activism in Buffalo and Niagara, while Randi Storch uses the outspoken commitment of Rabbi Stephen Wise to highlight the involvement of men in the movement. Rusty Tobin analyzes the differences between the two referenda held in 1915 and 1917, explaining why one succeeded and the other failed. We include quite a few images in this issue. Ken Florey illustrates a fascinating aspect of the dominance of woman suffrage in his photo essay on the popularity of suffrage postcards. Thomas Dublin details an ongoing [End Page 315] data collection project involving the writing of biographies of nearly three thousand suffrage activists by hundreds of students (including about forty women's history students at SUNY Oneonta). Finally, Susan Goodier sheds light on the challenges of researching black women suffrage activists for our newest feature, the Historian's Corner. In the issues' book reviews we include topics that range from suffrage rights and social movement activism to vacationing and traveling in the state, from warfare to cotton and wine. Our review essay critiques two books on Jewish activism, creativity, and theater. Writing and editing this issue has taken the efforts of a number of people. In addition to the anonymous peer reviewers, drawn from colleges and universities all over the country, and the steady work of the New York History journal's three editors, several SUNY Oneonta students assisted the process at various stages. Thomas Beal's students (Waldo A. Espinosa, Tierney E. Lynch, Meagan R. Moore, Sean Prahalis, Brittany E. Williams, Jennifer A. Yung), and Danny Noorlander's students (Chadwick Dunham, Evan Sanders, Mary Sawyer, Elia Tanzer, Dominque Wright) provided help and feedback during the editing process. Susan Goodier's students (Ronald Bartlett, Kara Dunderdale, Shivani Patel, Matthew Racanello, and Joshua Rosen) also assisted with the most recent book reviews. We are grateful for their thoughtful contributions. [End Page 316] Copyright © 2017 Fenimore Art Museum