Catt Hall: the gorgeous brick, Queen Anne Revival-style building you walk by several times a week. In the warmer months, you may find yourself sitting on one of the benches in front of the structure. Or you may have had to step inside to change or declare a major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. From your initial tours of Iowa State’s campus, you may remember the tour guide mentioning something about Carrie Chapman Catt, the hall’s namesake. The name is familiar—probably from your fifth or sixth grade history class, but do you really know who Carrie Chapman Catt was and what she did?
Occasionally Her Campus will feature Campus Celebrities that walked across central campus decades before us as former students or distinguished alumni. For this first installment, we’re throwing the spotlight on suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt.
Carrie was born on January 9, 1859 in Ripon, Wisconsin to Lucius and Mary Lane. The family eventually relocated to a farm outside Charles City, Iowa. In 1877, Carrie entered Iowa State Agriculture College, which we now know as Iowa State University. During her college years, she instituted military drills for women, presented an oration to a debate society (the first female student to do so), washed dishes and taught to pay for her education, worked as a librarian’s assistant and became a member of the sorority Pi Beta Phi. Carrie completed her bachelor’s degree in general science in three years. She graduated as the valedictorian and only woman in the 1880 graduating class.
After graduation, Carrie worked as a law clerk in Charles City and as a school teacher and principal in Mason City. A few years later in 1883, she accepted the position of Mason City school superintendent—not many women had ever been appointed to such a role. Carrie married Leo Chapman, the publisher and editor of the Mason City Republican newspaper. It was a short marriage that ended a year later when Leo dyed of typhoid fever in San Francisco, California. Carrie arrived in San Francisco a few days after his death to find herself a young widow far from home. She stayed in San Francisco and eventually became the first female newspaper reporter in the city.
Carrie returned to Iowa in 1887 to campaign for women’s voting rights. As a member of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association, she traveled the state organizing suffrage events and speaking out and writing about women’s right to vote. Carrie married George W. Catt in 1890; he was a well-to-do engineer that she’d met during her college years at Iowa State and again in San Francisco. George believed in Carrie’s cause—supporting her suffrage campaign in every way, including financially.
Carrie went on to work with the National American Woman Suffrage Association and eventually serve as president, following Susan B. Anthony. She contributed to the development of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and served as its president from 1904-1923 and served as honorary chair until her death. A string of deaths including her husband, Susan B. Anthony, her younger brother William and her mother devastated Carrie. She left the United states for nearly a decade to spread the suffragette movement abroad.
Carrie Chapman Catt’s relentless crusading of female voting rights led to approval of women’s suffrage in several states and eventually won over President Woodrow Wilson. In 1918, President Wilson supported a national constitutional amendment granting women voting rights, which was officially produced on August 26, 1920 as the ratified 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Besides striving for suffrage, Carrie campaigned for international peace, helped found the Women’s Peace Party, established the Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, backed the League of Nations and United Nations, helped Jewish refugees, and fought for child labor laws. In 1921, she became the first woman to deliver a commencement address at Iowa State and delivered one again at Iowa State in 1930.
When Carrie Chapman Catt died of heart failure on March 9, 1947, she bequeathed her entire estate to Iowa State. The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics was established to honor her in 1992. In 1995, Iowa State renovated the Old Botany building on central campus and renamed it after her to pay homage.
Carrie Chapman Catt was an extraordinary, driven woman who fought for what she believed in and inspired others to believe in her cause, too. She was a brilliant organizer, speaker and person who contributed to our voting rights as women in the United States. And to think that she walked across the same campus that we do everyday!
Sources:
Catt.org (Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home and Museum)
Biography.com (Carrie Chapman Catt Biography)
Iowa State University Alumni Association and LAS webpages
Photos:
Catt Hall (via Iowa State University, “Springtime Scenes of Iowa State University”)
Young Carrie Chapman Catt (via NPS.gov)
Older Carrie Chapman Catt (via Iowa State University Library Archives)