Virginia League of Women Voters

In this 1923 photograph, members of the Virginia League of Women Voters pose in the Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., with Virginia's U.S. senators. A handwritten caption at bottom lists the people in the photograph: from left to right are Maris Leaker, Adèle Clark, Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, Roberta Wellford, Julia Woone, Senator Claude A. Swanson, Nora Houston, Senator Carter Glass, Dudley Heinrich, Mrs. Hope, and Josephine Houston.

In 1920, after Virginia failed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted women the right to vote, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia disbanded and the Virginia League of Women Voters was created. The new league sponsored registration drives, voter education programs, and lobbying efforts on behalf of social welfare issues. The Commonwealth of Virginia did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1952.