WoW
Book shelf
Our favorite collection of books and publications all about Women of Washington (WOW) State, with a special focus on our local suffrage movement.
Have a suggestion for our library? Email us below!
And check back frequently, we'll be adding more through 2020
Ahead of the Curve: Washington Women Lead the Way 1920-2020
This book released in 2019 by the Washington Secretary of State marks national suffrage’s 2020 centennial by spotlighting Washington women who have led the way. Many of their stories are little-known, yet these women have made indelible impacts on Washington, our nation and the world.
Women in Pacific Northwest History
Dr. Karen Blair
"New insights into the lives of pioneer Japanese women, urban black women, and the women of the Colville Indian Reservation make the reading of this collection well worthwhile. A solid regional study."―Choice
Women's Votes, Women's Voices: The Campaign for Equal Rights in Washington
Shanna Stevenson
Women's Votes, Women's Voices provides a comprehensive summary of the Washington woman suffrage movement and presents vignettes on many of the state's most active leaders, such as May Arkwright Hutton and Emma Smith DeVoe, along with numerous illustrations.
Wrangling Women: Humor and Gender in the American West
“A delightful exploration of gender studies, stereotypes, and human resourcefulness, Wrangling Women frequently quotes the women it studies, allowing the reader to partake in both scholarly observation and the visceral feel of being there. A lively and entertaining treatise.” —Susan Bethany, Midwest Book Review, February 2007
Winning the West for Women: The Life of Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe
Jennifer M. Ross-Nazzal
"What makes DeVoe's story particularly fascinating is that suffrage leaders, including Susan B. Anthrony, disapproved of DeVoe's insistence on a more feminine approach. Ross-Nazzal correctly notes that not only were suffragists critical of DeVoe's strategy but historians have been as well."―Sunu Kodumthara
Northwest Women: An Annotated Bibliography of Sources on the History of Oregon and Washington Women, 1787 - 1970
Dr. Karen Blair
An annotated bibliography of some 700 nonfiction books and articles on the history of Pacific Northwest women, encompassing works on celebrated, anonymous, urban, and rural women of various ethnic backgrounds. Most of the sources cannot be found in bookstores, but can be obtained through inter-library loan offices at college and large public libraries. Includes b&w photos. Useful for researchers in history and women's studies. - Dr. Karen Blair
Peace Weavers: Uniting the Salish Coast Through Cross-Cultural Marraiges
Candace Wellman
Throughout the mid-1800s, Coast and Interior Salish families arranged strategic cross-cultural marriages, and these alliances played a crucial role in regional settlement and spared Puget Sound's upper corner from the tragic conflicts other regions experienced. Although accounts of the men exist in a variety of records, the contributions of their native wives remain unacknowledged. Each woman's story is uniquely her own, but together they and other intermarried women left lasting legacies. They were peace weavers.
Interwoven Lives: Indigenous Mothers of Salish Coast Communities
A companion work to the award-winning "Peace Weavers," "Interwoven Lives" depicts the experiences of four additional intermarried indigenous women who influenced mid-1800s Puget Sound settlement.
Seattle in Black and White: The Congress of Racial Equity and The Fight for Equal Opportunity
Joan Singler, Jean Durning, Bettylou Valentine & Maid Adams
"Four remarkable women helped reshape Seattle in the 1960s. And now they've given us a different perspective on the struggle for racial equality than we usually get. . . . . I know Seattle better because of their book. It's a valuable window on CORE's seven years as a catalyst for change in Seattle." - Seattle Times
Sowing Good Seeds: The Northwest Suffrage Campaigns of Susan B. Anthony
G. Thomas Edwards
"Susan B. Anthony made three trips to the Pacific Northwest to stump for woman suffrage…G. Thomas Edwards has argued here for the importance of her efforts in winning Northwest women the right to vote, four decades after her initial campaign…With astonishing meticulousness, Edwards has compiled Anthony’s “reviews” from fifty-seven periodicals. He has pieced together a formidable study of her reception by editors and audiences of the Northwest."
- Dr. Karen Blair
Women to Reckon With: Untamed Women of the Olympic Wilderness
Biographies of 12 remarkable women of the Pacific Northwest