Episode 7: Woman Suffrage Party Convention Booklet and Button | If This Hall Could Talk

This episode—inspired by a booklet and button from a 1910 Woman Suffrage Party Convention— explores how a series of meetings at Carnegie Hall contributed to and reflected an evolving national dialogue on women’s rights across the United States. It’s a chapter that illustrates Carnegie Hall’s legacy not only as a music hall, but also as a center for political discourse, activism, and social change.

Guests include Marcia Chatelain, an expert on the Black suffragists movement and author of " Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America;" Coline Jenkins, an expert on the suffragists and great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and great-granddaughter of Harriot  Stanton  Blatch; and Susan Ware, author of "Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote." Members of Carnegie Hall’s Rose Archives and Museum team—including Director Kathleen Sabogal, Assistant Director Rob Hudson, and Founding Archivist Gino Francesconi—are also featured.

If This Hall Could Talk is available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every other week.

Music Credits:
“Smiles Fox Trot”
Written by Lee S. Roberts and J. Will Callahan
Performed by Jaudas’ Society Orchestra
University of California, Santa Barbara Library

“Columbia’s Daughters”
Written by Harriet H. Robinson
Performed by Elizabeth Knight
From Songs of the Suffragettes, FW05281
Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. ℗ 1958
Used by permission.

“Sliding Sid”
Written by Harry J. Lincoln
Performed by the New York Military Band
University of California, Santa Barbara

“Rag-A-Minor”
Written by Julius Lenzberg
Performed by Yerkes Jazarimba Orchestra
University of California, Santa Barbara

“Give the Ballot to the Mothers”
Written by Rebecca N. Hazard
Performed by Elizabeth Knight
From Songs of the Suffragettes, FW05281
Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. ℗ 1958
Used by permission.

“Hands Across the Sea”
Written by John Philip Sousa
Performed by the New York Military Band
University of California, Santa Barbara

“Winning the Vote”
Written by A. B. Smith
Performed by Elizabeth Knight
From Songs of the Suffragettes, FW05281
Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. ℗ 1958
Used by permission.

“Blue Rose Waltz”
Written by Frederic Knight Logan and J. R. Shannon
Performed by Jaudas’ Society Orchestra
University of California, Santa Barbara Library

“Keep Woman in Her Sphere”
Written by D. Estabrook
Performed by Elizabeth Knight
From Songs of the Suffragettes, FW05281
Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. ℗ 1958
Used by permission.

Archival Credit:
British Pathé
FILM Archives
Periscope Film
University of South Carolina MIRC

Carnegie Hall’s mission is to present extraordinary music and musicians on the three stages of this legendary hall, to bring the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience, to provide visionary education programs, and to foster the future of music through the cultivation of new works, artists, and audiences.

#carnegiehall #womensrights #vote