IN PRAISE OF A FORMER COLLEAGUE IN THE FIGHT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE:

“You are...always doing something good and strong for the public....
God bless you.... how glad I am that you are able to do so much”

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. Typed Letter Signed to Mrs. Frank Vanderlip, New Rochelle, NY, 29 January 1933. 1 page, 8½" x 9¾", on her personal stationery.

A major figure in the woman suffrage movement in the U. S., Carrie Chapman Catt served as president of National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1915 on, and it was her leadership, organizational skills, and "Winning Plan" that finally resulted in the successful adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920. After that victory, Catt continued to work for woman suffrage on the international level, and she was active in movements for world peace and disarmament.

Catt’s correspondent here, Narcissa Cox Vanderlip, was an old colleague who had been a leader in the fight for woman suffrage in New York State. Vanderlip later headed the state chapter of the League of Women Voters and actively supported various social welfare reforms, ranging from an end to child labor to unemployment insurance to aid for education, at both the state and national levels. Through such work, she had come to know Eleanor Roosevelt well, and at this date, she was chair of a committee organizing a special dinner in honor of Mrs. Roosevelt, whose husband was then the President-elect. Vanderlip had evidently written Catt asking her to join in the project.

The 74-year-old Catt explains, “Alas, I am not able to go out in the evening. I rarely do so. Once in a great while, when conditions are especially easy, I do so. I really cannot come to the dinner nor can I serve in any capacity which involves work. If you want my name on the Dinner Committee, I will be very glad to give it.

“My dear Mrs. Vanderlip,” Catt adds, “now that I do not see you any more, I want to let you know I think of you quite often.” Then, apparently referring to an event for the families of soldiers who had died in World War I, she continues, “I wanted to write you and say how glad I was that you were leading a sing at Town Hall. I think the singing did a lot to help the mothers and fathers whose boys went off to war, and they certainly need any cheer there is in music now quite as much as they did then. These are depressing times.

“You are a dear woman and are always doing something good and strong for the public. I want to say – God bless you – and say how glad I am that you are able to do so much.” She has signed in full, “Carrie Chapman Catt.”

The letter is in very good condition. $500.00

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