The suffrage campaign wagon used by Edna Buckman Kearns on Long Island and in New York City parades is an example of the extensive use of “visual rhetoric” used by the suffragists in addition to the written and spoken word. This wagon also tapped into the tradition of the American Revolution by the question posed whenever Edna spoke in public: “If taxation without representation was tyranny in 1776, why not in 1913?” The wagon’s name, the “Spirit of 1776,” also was a crowd pleaser. Other suffragists also used suffrage campaign wagons, such as Rosalie Jones in this 1913 article where the “Spirit of 1776″ is also mentioned.
Edna Buckman Kearns used this campaign wagon in Votes for Women organizing campaigns on Long Island and in New York City parades. It’s part of the collection of the New York State Museum in Albany, New York. The wagon was featured in the state museum’s Legacy magazine where transportation curator Geoffrey Stein referred to the suffrage wagon as a prime artifact of the suffrage movement. The suffrage wagon was displayed at the New York State Museum during March and April of 2010 in an exhibit entitled “Women Who Rocked the Vote.” Check out an overview of the exhibit.
When a Brooklyn wagon company donated the wagon to the state woman’s suffrage movement in 1913, The New York Times ran this article:
August 1, 1913, NY Times
Article about suffrage campaign wagon in New York State museum magazine, Legacy
How grateful we as women should be to the women who endured so much so that
we have the freedom to vote. This site made me aware of what they suffered.
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Interesting slice of life about this wagon.
Brilliant content. One of my favorites. Lance
Thank you for sharing excellent information. Your web-site is cool. I am impressed by the info.
Mmmmmmmm. How about writing a book on your grandmother?
This wagon represents a time in our history we should be proud of.
Cool web site!!
Best wishes for developing such an informative web site.
It’s hard to read the scan of the NY Times article: does it really refer to Edna as “Mrs. Wilmer Kearns” at the bottom?
Yes. Edna Kearns and Mrs. Wilmer Kearns are the same!!!!!
Hey, when’s the wagon going to go on exhibit? All this talk and not much action. Or isn’t it in your hands?
This wagon is a symbol of something much larger. Keep up the work!
Noteworthy artifact.