For my HIST390- Digital History project, I am proposing the following topic:
Research Question-
What Am I Studying: I will be studying the life and legacy of Victoria Woodhull, a woman of great significance to Women’s Rights today.
Why: I have decided to focus on Victoria Woodhull’s legacy as the first female to run for the office of President of the United States in 1872.
What Do I Hope to Understand: I hope to shed light on how Mrs. Woodhull served as a catalyst for Women’s Rights, the role of women in political office, and women as authority figures. By providing a timeline of Mrs. Woodhull’s significant political life events leading up to her Presidential run in 1872, I hope to better understand what it takes to create an exuberant, knowledgable, and qualified female candidate for the highest political office in the United States.
Thesis- Victoria Woodhull was the first female candidate for the President of the United States in 1872. Her achievements, although often overlooked, elevated the role of women in politics and serve as a a model for what it really takes to purse the highest political office in the United States.
Main Primary Sources-
- A publication by Victoria Woodhull herself called “The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government”. It was published in her weekly reader the same year she ran for office, 1872.
- A book written by Theodore Tilton that provides a “biographical sketch” of Victoria Woodhull in Number 3 of The Golden Age Tracts. It was published in 1871 and discusses Victoria Woodhull’s battle to become a candidate for the presidency.
- A newspaper article in The Advocate and news, a paper from Topeka Kansas from 1897 that discusses the recent life of Victoria Woodhull.
- A clipping of “Mrs. Woodhull asserting her right to vote” from 1870-1875.
- An illustration from an illustrated newspaper that depicts “a lady delegate reading her argument in favor of woman’s voting”, the woman is known to be Victoria Woodhull. It is dated 1870.
My Best Secondary Source-
- A review by Mary A. Yeager of Ellen Fitzpatricks book “The Highest Glass Ceilings: Women’s Quest for the American Presidency”.
- A book by Teri Finneman called “Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s–2000s : From “Lunatic” Woodhull to “Polarizing” Palin”.
- A book by Lois Beachy Underhill called “The Woman Who Ran for President : the Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull“.
Source Citations:
Primary Sources:
The Advocate and news. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.), 15 Dec. 1897. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Mrs. Woodhull asserting her right to vote” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1870 – 1875.
Tilton, Theodore. The Golden age tracts. New York, The Golden Age, 1871. Pdf. Lib. of Congress
Washington, D.C. The Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives receiving a deputation of female suffragists, January 11th – a lady delegate reading her argument in favor of woman’s voting, on the basis of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Constitutional Amendments. United States, 1871. Photograph.
Woodhull, Victoria. “The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government.” Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly 4, no. 8 (1872).
Secondary Sources:
Finneman , Teri. 2015. Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s–2000s : From “Lunatic” Woodhull to “Polarizing” Palin. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Accessed March 1, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Underhill, Lois Beachy. The Woman Who Ran for President : the Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull 1st ed. Bridgehampton, N.Y: Bridge Works Pub., 1995.
Yeager, Mary A. 2017. “Ellen Fitzpatrick, The Highest Glass Ceiling: Women’s Quest for the American Presidency.” Business History Review 91 (4). Cambridge University Press: 809–13. doi:10.1017/S0007680517001349.
