Robert P.J. Cooney, Jr. has studied the historic drive to win the vote by American women for over 25 years. After attending the University of Santa Clara in California, he joined the staff of the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence in Palo Alto where he designed and co-edited “The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States.” This illustrated history traced nonviolent tactics and philosophy throughout U.S. history from William Penn to Martin Luther King, Jr., and awakened an interest in the woman suffrage movement.
Moving to Pt. Reyes Station in 1977, he opened Robert Cooney Graphic Design and over the years created hundreds of books, publications, and special projects for commercial and non-profit clients. In 1993 he started the Woman Suffrage Media Project to further efforts to help popularize this long overlooked part of American history. He also began research for a photographic history of the suffrage movement, and visited or corresponded with major libraries and historical societies across the country.
Recipient of a research grant from The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women at Harvard University, he also served as a consultant on several suffrage-related books, publications, and films including the PBS documentary, “One Women, One Vote.” In 2005, American Graphic Press published the lavishly illustrated history, “Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement,” full of facts and images documenting women’s early political achievements. The book received glowing reviews and was recommended as an essential resource for the nation’s public and school libraries. In 2019, it inspired a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, “A Portrait of Persistence.”
Mr. Cooney has spoken at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Constitution Center, and the Library of Congress emphasizing the successful grassroots political campaigns suffragists waged between 1910 and 1920. He received the annual “Write Women Back Into History” Award in 2005 from the National Women’s History Project in recognition of his work uncovering this critically important chapter in American history. During the 2020 women’s suffrage centennial, he was active nationally with the Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative and produced several publications and catalogs marking this important anniversary.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he lives with his wife in Half Moon Bay, California.
