Primary Sources
The Barbara Haney Irvine Library & Archives
The Barbara Haney Irvine Library & Archives is located on the 3rd floor of the Alice Paul Institute. It was named in 2015 to honor the API’s founding president. The library includes a small women’s history library of biographies, feminist theory, gender studies, and juvenile literature. It also holds the Alice Paul Archives, which features original copies of The Suffragist and Equal Rights newspapers, photographs, and Equal Rights Amendment research. The Paul family photograph albums show images of family members in addition to notable Quakers. The archives also houses Alice Paul’s personal library, which includes women’s history books, school textbooks, poetry, and a set of Charles Dickens’ novels.
The Alice Paul Archives are grouped in the following collections:
● First Accession
● Second Accession
● The Amelia R. Fry Collection
● Mixed Collection
For the collections’ finding aid, click here.
To arrange a research appointment, contact history@alicepaul.org or 856-231-1885. Please note that the Barbara Haney Irvine Library & Archives is on the third floor; accessibility accommodations will be provided with at least two weeks’ notice.
Online Sources
Conversations with Alice Paul
Conversations with Alice Paul is an oral history interview with Alice Paul, conducted by Amelia R. Fry from 1972 to 1973. The audio files are provided in their entirety on our website, while a transcript is held at the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. It is helpful to use these resources together.
The interview features information on Alice Paul from early childhood to her accomplishments towards the end of her life, all told in her own words. Each subject is broken up into separate sections, which can be viewed by clicking on the titles on the left of the transcript. The transcript is also searchable, using the search bar in the upper right corner. The audio files are made available here with permission from the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. Requests to quote from or otherwise use this interview should be directed to The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
What the Hometown Thinks of Alice Paul
What the Hometown Thinks of Alice Paul is an account of a visit to Alice Paul’s home in Mount Laurel, NJ in 1919, published in Everybody’s Magazine. This primary source offers a different perspective of Alice Paul, told by the members of her hometown and shows what those who knew her thought about her during the time of the women’s suffrage movement.
I Was Arrested, of Course
I Was Arrested, of Course is an interview of Alice Paul conducted by American Heritage journalist Robert S. Gallagher in 1974. It includes a brief background of Alice Paul and the women’s suffrage movement. The interview covers Alice Paul’s involvement in the women’s suffrage movement in England as well as the U.S, her drafting of the E.R.A, and her accomplishments up until 1974.
American Woman
American Women is a guide for Library of Congress researchers working in the field of American women’s history. The link provides access to a Research Guide as well as the Library of Congress’s photographs from the women’s suffrage movement.
Votes for Women
Votes for Women is the Library of Congress’s digital resources from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection. This provides access to an extensive online collection of suffrage books and pamphlets.
Women’s Suffrage Women’s Suffrage: Pictures of Suffragists and Their Activities is a collection of pictures from the women’s suffrage movement at the Library of Congress. It includes photographs of women’s suffrage marches and protests and notable women involved in the movement, as well as political cartoons and posters.
Jailed for Freedom
Jailed for Freedom is an eyewitness account of Doris Stevens’ involvement in the women’s suffrage movement. She describes her time in jail as a result of her involvement in peaceful protests and picket campaigns to support the National Woman’s Party and their fight for suffrage.
The History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. 1-6
The History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1-6 is a series written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Ida Husted, and Matilda Joslyn Gage. It was published between the years 1848 and 1920. These books provide a history of the women’s suffrage movement in America from its start to the ratification of the 19th amendment, from the perspective of those women’s group within the movement.
Woman’s Suffrage poster, 1915
This is a 1915 women’s suffrage poster from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. It includes an image of the poster itself and a transcript listing the duties of women in the home at the time and the problems they dealt with, and explains the suffragists’ arguments for giving women the right to vote. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History also includes secondary resources.
The Legal Position of Women in Pennsylvania, 1912
This is a late-stage draft of Alice Paul’s PhD dissertation from the University of Pennsylvania. The high-quality scan shows some pages hand-written, some typed, and includes notes scribbled in the margins. The dissertation surveys the legal history of women in Pennsylvania from 1638-1912. The University of Pennsylvania also provides additional digital scans relating to Alice Paul here.
Q&A: Alice Paul, Racism, and the 1913 First National Suffrage March
This is an examination of the participation of black women in the 1913 suffrage march and the role Alice Paul played in their participation, or lack thereof. In it, J.D. Zahniser, co-author of Alice Paul: Claiming Power (Oxford, 2014, 2019), explains what primary source documents said at the time and provides several sources to explore furthe