Site of the Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild Office

The Little Building held numerous offices, including those of suffrage organizations.

NPS Photo/Woods

Quick Facts

Location:

Little Building, 80 Boylston Street

Significance:

Site of the Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild Office

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Private Building

Established in 1917, the Catholic organization the Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild aimed to "[organize] Catholic women along civic lines, in order that they may be more completely informed in regard to the various departments of our government."¹ Believing in traditional spheres of influence, many Catholics had originally opposed women's suffrage. Sentiments among the Catholic population slowly changed at the beginning of the 1900s, and by the 1910s many working-class Catholics agreed that women’s suffrage would benefit society in numerous ways.²

Similar to other organizations, the Massachusetts branch of the Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild held meetings, lectures, and fundraising events for its members to both educate women and encourage support for women's civic participation. One of Boston's most well-known suffragists, Margaret Foley, served as the Guild's State Chairman of Organization.³

Footnotes:

1. "Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild documents, 1914-1919" Women's Studies Manuscript Collections from The Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Series 1: Woman's Suffrage, Part D: New England, Accessed through ProQuest History Vault January 2020; "Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild Annual Meeting," Boston Globe, April 7, 1918.
2. For more information, please read James Kenneally, "Catholicism and Woman Suffrage in Massachusetts," The Catholic Historical Review 53, no. 1 (April 1967), 43-57.
3. “Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild documents, 1914-1919” Women's Studies Manuscript Collections from The Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Series 1: Woman's Suffrage, Part D: New England, Accessed through ProQuest History Vault January 2020.