For me, one of the most fun parts of researching a book is when I discover fascinating tidbits from history. For example, the early stages of my peeks at the life of Rose O’Neill as I worked on my novel showed me she supported suffrage. Rose was, after all, a working woman living in Greenwich Village, a hotbed of political activism. However, I had no idea about the extent of her involvement until I took a deeper dive into her story.

As Rose’s Kewpies became a phenomenon, her interest in the movement grew along with her active participation. She marched in suffrage parades held in New York City. During one parade Rose had the honor of leading the contingent of women who made their living as illustrators. Although she wasn’t always at ease speaking in front of groups, Rose stepped outside her comfort zone and agreed to take center stage on behalf of the cause. I can almost imagine how she must have felt when facing a sometimes hostile crowd. For there were plenty of men, and some women too, who were vehemently opposed to giving women the right to vote.

Anti-suffrage materials were printed and widely distributed, often using derogatory images. They typically portrayed suffragists as ugly bitter spinsters who were only doing this because they couldn’t find a husband.

Another popular device was showing suffragists as unreasonable tyrants who would most certainly emasculate men if they were given the opportunity to vote. The obvious intention of this strategy was to find every way possible of striking fear into the hearts of the men who would vote on the issue. 

As you can see in this comic (circa 1910), the man of the house has been relegated to doing the laundry and (gasp!) caring for the baby. His wife is nowhere to be found. The framed sign hanging on the wall says:  “Everybody Works But Mother. She’s a Suffragette.” Another comic showed a frazzled father holding a crying baby as his wife stomps out the door on election day. Presumed implication? Mother will be at the polls to cast her ballot, but Father will be at home tending to the household duties.

To help combat these types of tactics, Rose took the leap of harnessing the popularity of her own creation. The Kewpies, by this time well-known as cute, lovable, humorous, and kind beings, were perfectly suited to combat the negative anti-suffragist strategy. They got people to thinking. What could be wrong with the idea of a woman voting? After all, the Kewpies represented all thing good, and they certainly seemed to approve of the measure.

This was, however, a decidedly risky move since Rose could easily alienate the people who were essentially her readers as well as her customers by involving the beloved character in a somewhat controversial political movement. This could pose a potential hazard to her income. Yet it appears Rose didn’t hesitate to unleash the power and popularity of her Kewpies.

She created designs for postcards, flyers, and posters that were widely distributed. Many of them featured Kewpies. Others were images of babies or young girls passionately advocating to “Give Mother the Vote”. A popular poster of Rose’s used in 1915 and again in 1917 showed a man and a woman confidently walking side-by-side captioned “Together for Home and Family.”

While there were almost certainly those who did not approve of Rose using her Kewpies in this fashion, I believe many, particularly those men who were on the fence regarding the issue, saw the endorsement as another reason to ponder the question, “Why not?”.

There is much more about Rose and the events that shaped her into the woman she became in The Rose of Washington Square. I’m excited to say that Rose’s story is now also available in audio format performed by the fabulous actress and narrator Elisabeth Rodgers!