Though Dr. Lucy Hobbs Taylor was not alive 100+ years ago to witness American women win full voting rights with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, she definitely forged a path to equality for her gender.

Antique photograph of Dr. Lucy Hobbs.

By the time she had turned 28 (on her birthday, March 14, 1861)  Dr. Lucy Hobbs had opened a solo dental practice in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1866, when Dr. Hobbs earned her dental degree after defying nearly a decade of resistance, her goals aligned with other pioneers for progress.
That same year, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony organized the American Equal Rights Association, with the goal of suffrage for all, regardless of gender or race.

An image of the original 15th amendment.

The Fifteenth Amendment banned discrimination on the basis of race or color, but not gender. Image courtesy www.visitthecapitol.gov 

A year later in 1867, while working as a dentist in Chicago, Dr. Hobbs married James M. Taylor. She became a supporter of the woman suffrage movement in the two decades that followed. Later she retired from a large dental practice in Lawrence, Kansas that she shared with her husband. (He became a dentist under his wife’s instruction.)
Prior to her death in 1910, the country was closer to offering equality in voting.

A woman suffrage parade, Wash., D.C. March, 1913
A woman suffrage parade, Wash., D.C. March, 1913. (Courtesy Library of Congress)
Police arrest picketers Edna Dixon and Lavinia Dock in a crowd, August, 1917
Police arrest picketers Edna Dixon and Lavinia Dock in a crowd, August, 1917. (Courtesy Library of Congress)
Suffragettes in Pennsylvania on the picket line, 1917
Suffragettes in Pennsylvania on the picket line, 1917. (Courtesy Library of Congress)
New York pickets at the White House, January 26, 1917
New York pickets at the White House, January 26, 1917. (Courtesy Library of Congress)
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress.) Above, from top left, a woman suffrage parade, Wash., D.C. March, 1913; Police arrest picketers Edna Dixon and Lavinia Dock in a crowd, August, 1917; Suffragettes in Pennsylvania on the picket line, 1917; New York pickets at the White House, January 26, 1917

Walking the Walk

Each step for progress arrived through sacrifice of pioneers like Dr. Hobbs, people committed to positive change.

A gallery of images above, courtesy of the Library of Congress, documents a few woman suffrage parades and pickets.

The National Women’s History Museum offers a Woman Suffrage Timeline from 1840-1920 here, including these defining moments in 1917:

  • National Woman’s Party picketers appear in front of the White House holding two banners, “Mr. President, What Will You Do For Woman Suffrage?” and “How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?”  
  • Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman elected to Congress, is formally seated in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
  • Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman’s Party, is put in solitary confinement in the mental ward of a prison to undermine her credibility with the public. 
  • National Woman’s party picketers are arrested on charges of obstructing sidewalk traffic.  Subsequent picketers are sentenced to up to six months in jail.  Five months later, the government unconditionally releases the picketers in response to public outcry and an inability to stop National Woman’s Party picketers’ hunger strike.

 

Purple and gold image of a torch overlaid with text that reads "Forward Into Light: Illuminate the U.S. in Purple & Gold. We're In! Are You?"

Forward Into Light

Take a curator-led gallery tour of “Rightfully Hers” at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC at womensvote100.org

How can you join the celebration?

Visit any of the resources mentioned above to engage, learn and create history in your community.

Explore children’s creativity. Young people in each of the 50 states, and the District of Columbia, shared contributions to showcase individuals, symbols, or events that represent this significant moment in history. Visit Building the Movement: America’s Youth Celebrate 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage here.

At the 2019 Lucy Hobbs Project Celebration in Chicago, CNN’s Poppy Harlow, above right, is interviewed by Dr. Vladana Babcic Tal, Cameo Dental Specialists.
At the 2019 Lucy Hobbs Project Celebration in Chicago, CNN’s Poppy Harlow, above right, is interviewed by Dr. Vladana Babcic Tal, Cameo Dental Specialists, as part of a full day of panels, speakers and a Celebration ceremony honoring six Lucy Hobbs Project award recipients.

Discover a unique opportunity for dentists

Join an initiative in dentistry named as an homage to the first woman in the U.S. to earn a dental degree. The Lucy Hobbs Project, powered by Benco Dental for nearly a decade, empowers women in the profession to drive change and deliver results through networking, innovation and giving back.

* Nominate an inspirational woman in dentistry for a Lucy Hobbs Project Award today.

* Click here to learn more about the 2020 honorees, and

* Meet past recipients of the project’s annual awards.