Astronauts Ellen Ochoa, Julie Payette, and Tamara Jernigan together in 1999 in the space shuttle with the historic gold, white, and purple suffrage banner used by members of the National Woman's Party in the early 20th Century.
The Color Palette
The bold color palette for the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation was inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement and contains a multitude of historical references.
Purple, white, yellow, and green are drawn from the imagery of the American suffragists, who largely adopted the color palette from their allies across the Atlantic—the British suffragettes.
Purple signifies loyalty to the cause, while white is used for its bright and bold impact, representing a purity of purpose. Green represents hope and new beginnings, which is referenced through deep emerald and fresh mint hues. Yellow, the only color not used in the British movement and unique to the American suffragists, was used frequently in the American women’s suffrage movement in both the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries: from the yellow roses that were worn by suffrage champions to show their support to the sunflower pins that suffragists wore to symbolize hope and a new dawn.
The palette is rounded out by a dark maroon and scarlet red. Suffragists often wore red lipstick, so much so that it was playfully referred to as a part of the “suffragist uniform.” Red lipstick would come to symbolize strength, courage, and rebellion, and famous suffragists even got in on the game – Elizabeth Arden, beauty company founder from the early 1900s, would stand at suffrage parades in New York City and hand out tubes to every woman marching.
Members of the National Woman's Party leading a women's suffrage picket in Washington, D.C., 1917.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / original image: Library of Congress
Mrs. Charles Lewis Tiffany, née Katrina Brandes Ely, carrying an American flag in suffrage parade, New York City, Oct. 27, 1917.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / original image: Library of Congress
Suffragists Susan Walker Fitzgerald, Emma Bugbee, Maggie Murphy and Harriot Stanton Blatch at a women's suffrage parade in New York City, July 30, 1913.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / original image: Library of Congress
Youngest parader in a New York City suffragist parade, May 1912.Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / original image: Library of Congress
The Typeface
Schessa Grant (they/them), a first-generation Belizean-American artist and designer, created the Foundation’s bespoke primary typeface, FCH Zitkála-Šá, specifically for this project.
The typeface is inspired by the art nouveau style commonly seen on posters and flyers from the American women’s suffrage movement, with its signature eccentric angles, narrow structure, and ornate flourishes. It takes particular inspiration from the typeface found throughout The Suffragist, weekly magazine of the National Woman’s Party from 1913-1921 and Equal Rights, the weekly magazine of the National Woman’s Party from 1923-1954.
The typeface name honors Zitkála-Šá (1876-1938), an Indigenous, Yankton Dakota writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and advocate. Zitkála-Šá’s bold and unyielding activism on behalf of women’s rights and indigenous rights served as the inspiration for the custom typeface that is now woven into the monument’s bold and unyielding visual branding.
Equal Rights Magazine Covers. Images via the Society of Georgia Archivists.
Zitkála-Šá. Image via the Wikiepedia Commons.
Photography
Historic collections from our nation’s leading cultural institutions, including the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, and National Archives, are unparalleled sources for historic suffrage photographs, documents, and artifacts. By using real, authentic, historic photographs, we are able to provide depth and humanity to the events and people who are often invisible in textbooks and in public spaces. These women lived, breathed, and dedicated their lives to the fight for freedom and equality. They deserve to be seen, heard, and remembered.
Mrs. W.L. Prendergast, Mrs. W.L. Colt, Doris Stevens, Alice Paul. Image via the Library of Congress.
Miss Elsa Ueland, Congressional Union organizer, National Woman’s Party. Image via the Library of Congress.
Executive board of Women's League, 1899.
Japanese Suffragists. Image via the Library of Congress.
Illustrative Patterns
Through the website and other materials, you’ll see various line elements and patterns, including:
These shapes are inspired by the banners held by suffragists on protest and parade routes. The core geometry of our brand references the curves and angles at the bottom of this silk banner, created by the Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, a division of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).
The NACW’s motto, “Lifting As We Climb,” embodies the double bind for equality at the intersection of gender and race. Our creative choices intentionally acknowledge underrepresented stories and figures within the suffrage movement.
Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (1924). Source: National Museum of African American History & Culture’s Searchable Museum.
Bringing it All Together
Our visual brand seeks to center all women, known and unknown, who participated in the fight for women’s suffrage, and to encourage a lasting connection between our rich past and our yet-to-be written future. We aim to inspire all Americans to be changemakers in their communities and active participants in our shared democracy.
Special thanks to Teal Media for creating a thoughtful and meaningful brand that justly honors the women’s suffrage movement and those who were unyielding in their fight for women’s equality.
