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Suffrage Strategies
Women historically used different tactics to draw attention to the cause of suffrage and other women's rights issues.  Auto tours, pageants and broom brigades were among those tactics.  The below images illustrate what those events looked like, and give you an idea of what we are trying to celebrate and re-create.

AUTO TOURS --- Across the Country or Around the County

​The “Golden Flier” --- Nell Richardson, Alice Burke, and Saxon (a cat)
Miss Walrous and her bull terrier
Suffragists touring in Plattsburgh in 1911
​A suffrage tour in Keene Valley in 1914
National Woman's Party Auto Tour at Ticonderoga in 1924
Suffrage Centennial Auto Tour 2021 !
PAGEANTS --- At the Nation's Capitol or In a Mountain Field
Women and girls in a suffrage pageant
​at the U.S. Capitol in 1913
Women and girls the Forward Into Light pageant
in the Adirondacks (Meadowmount) in 1924
Even after suffrage was achieved, women continued to use pageants to draw attention to other women's issues, such as Equal Rights. Left: 1923 Pageant in Colorado Springs. Right: 1924 Forward Into Light pageant was in Lewis, NY.  
PARADES



Parades played a major role in the promotion of suffrage.  Inez Milholland was famous for riding a horse at the head of several parades. Right: Inez in 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C. ​

​BROOM BRIGADES --- A Military-Style Drill for Women
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​In the 1880s, women performed military-style drills in "Broom Brigades."  This was a way to show that women could engage in traditionally male activities, and do it with style and precision.  It promoted the idea of women in sports and physical activities where they had been excluded.
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The "Sunflower Brigade" was a broom brigade that performed at Hulett's Landing on Lake George as people watched from passing boats and the ferry.
Another Strategy in Plattsburgh --- A SUFFRAGE TENT