Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

7 The Green, Dover, DE 19901, USA

Lat/Long

39.1567148, -75.5235086

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

The former home of suffragist Mabel Lloyd Ridgely, aka the Parke-Ridgley House, is located in Dover, DE. Born in 1872, Mabel Lloyd Fisher, later Mabel Lloyd Rigley, was an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage. From 1919-1920, Ridgely served as the President of the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association and worked tirelessly to raise awareness and promote the cause of woman suffrage. In 1919, the proposed Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S Senate and was subsequently sent to the states for ratification. Ridgely helped lead Delaware Ratification efforts, with hopes that the State Legislature would ratify the proposed amendment. A March 22, 1920, article from the Wilmington Daily Commercial captures her optimism:

 Mrs. Henry Ridgely, President of the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association, said last night in discussing the coming session of the Legislature, with reference to its probable action on the Susan B. Anthony amendment: “Suffrage is an assured fact. No action of the Delaware legislature can delay it more than for a brief season. People of the original thirteen colonies were committed to the cause of independence; so the people of America are today committed to the ballot for their women. Delaware was loyal to America in 1776. She will be loyal to America in 1920. She will prove her loyalty by her action in the historic statehouse at Dover, whose walls witnessed the birth of the first state of the union, and will witness the birth of justice to the daughters of the Union.”

Sadly, Delaware did not ratify the amendment until 1923, however, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was successfully ratified and added to the U.S. Constitution, giving women across the United States the right to vote. People like Mabel Lloyd Ridgely, and organizations like the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association, helped pave the way for future generations of women to have the right to vote.