Scrapbook from the International Woman Suffrage Congress

This scrapbook from the International Woman Suffrage Congress, held in Budapest, Hungary in 1913, includes rare photographs of humanist and suffragist Adela Coit. Alongside a number of others prominent in the Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK), such as Nina Spiller, Coit played an active role in international efforts to gain the vote for women. Adela Coit’s involvement with both the Ethical movement and suffragism predated her 1898 marriage to Stanton Coit, though many others involved in the ethical societies were also proponents of female suffrage and international cooperation. Adela Coit was treasurer of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and features in at least two photographs in this album, alongside other far more famous names from the international women’s movement. The IWSA intended to unite women in their pursuit of fair representation, regardless of country or creed. Adela and Stanton’s daughter, Margaret, was also at the Congress, and also features in the album. As an item, this album is a reminder of the presence of humanist heritage in archives across the world, and the internationalism which has long been a feature of the organised humanist movement and its members. Prominent examples have included the World Congress of Freethinkers, the First International Moral Education Congress, the First Universal Races Congress, and the International Humanist and Ethical Union (now Humanists International).

_{Image: New York Public Library Digital Collections}