This handsome glass paperweight is based on a button worn by marchers at the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade, now housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 

Historians later credited the event with invigorating the suffrage movement with a new wave of inspiration and purpose. Thousands of women gathered in Washington, D.C., on March 3rd to call for a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote.  Though the movement had been building for more than half a century, this marked the first major national event for the cause.  More than five thousand suffragists marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, along with more than twenty floats, nine bands, and four mounted brigades.  As the women marched from the U.S. Capitol down Constitution Avenue, they were met by thousands of spectators, many in town for the next day’s inauguration of Woodrow Wilson.  When some spectators harassed and attacked the marchers, the police did little to intervene.  By the end of the day, more than a hundred women were hospitalized for injuries, leading to major news coverage and congressional hearings.  Although the Nineteenth Amendment was not ratified for another seven years, the parade gave expression to the nationwide demand for a Constitutional amendment enfranchising women. 

These paperweights are exclusive to The Reader’s Catalog. To have them made in the U.S.A., we’ve partnered with an American company that creates products for museum stores, colleges and universities, libraries, and more. 

 This unique desk accessory has a felt bottom; 3-3/8" W x 1-1/2" H. Each paperweight comes packaged in a black velvet bag and in a white gift box.