Topics in Chronicling America - Golden Flyer Suffragettes

On April 6, 1916, Nell Richardson and Alice Burke set out from New York to cross the United States stumping for the women’s right to vote. Traveling in the Golden Flyer, a yellow two-seater, the suffragettes embarked on a five month cross-continent trip across many dirt and gravel roads. Armed with a fireless cooker, hand sewing machine, typewriter, and a cat named Saxon, the women spoke tirelessly across the country to garner support and encourage women to attend parades at the 1916 Republican and Democratic National Conventions in Chicago and St. Louis.

Important Dates:

• 1890. Wyoming enters the union with its suffrage laws intact, becoming the first state to allow women to vote.
• April 6, 1916. Nell Richardson and Alice Burke leave New York City in the Golden Flyer with the goal of crossing the country to promote women’s suffrage.
• April 26, 1916. Nell Richardson and Alice Burke receive a black kitten as a gift which travels with them the remainder of the way.
• May, 1916. The suffragettes report on the possibility of “Mexican raids” in border town visits in Texas.
• June, 1916. The Republican and Democratic National Conventions are held in Chicago and St. Louis respectively.
• July 14, 1916. Suffragettes arrive in Seattle, Washington, completing half of their coast-to-coast journey.
• September, 1916. Nell Richardson, Alice Burke, and the cat return with the Golden Flyer to New York, completing the tour.
• 1919. The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gives women the right to vote, is adopted by a joint resolution in Congress.
• August 26, 1920. After Tennessee becomes the thirty-sixth state to ratify the 19th Amendment, the Amendment is officially adopted and women are given the right to vote.