The Mary Eliza Project: Ward 13 Women's Voter Records Now Available

We've finished transcribing our Ward 13 Women's Voter Registers from 1920 and have added them into an easily accessible, searchable, and sortable dataset.

In August 1920, the month that Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, the women of Boston began registering to vote. Women voted by the thousands to register, and on October 13, 1920, the last day to register before the 1920 presidential election, over 50,000 women had registered.

The 1920 Women's Voter Registers now live at the Boston City Archives and document women's names, addresses, places of birth and occupations. Sometimes women provided additional information about their naturalization process to become a US citizen, including where their husbands were born because in 1920, a woman's citizenship status was tied to her husband's nationality.

The Mary Eliza Project, named after African American nurse, civil rights activist, and Boston voter Mary Eliza Mahoney, is transcribing these valuable handwritten records into an easily searchable and sortable dataset.

Map showing the boundaries of Boston's Ward 13 in 1920 — *Map showing Boston's Ward 13 in 1920, Boston City Archives*

Ward 13 straddled the South End and Roxbury and was home to over 2,000 newly registered women voters.

Voter register showing women with occupations of journalist, dressmaker, housewife, hairdresser, laundress, and domestic — *Portion of Ward 13 Voter Register showing occupations of journalist, hairdresser, dressmaker, domestic, laundress, housewife, and domestic, Boston City Archives*

Ward 13's newly registered voters worked as clerks, journalists, musicians, telephone operators, cherry pitters and pickers, Boston Public School teachers, elevator operators, housewives, seamstresses, department store salesladies, laundresses, and more.

Voter register showing women born in Virginia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts — *Portion of Ward 13 Voter Register showing women born in Virginia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, Boston City Archives*

We found African American voters who moved to Boston from southeastern United States; naturalized voters who immigrated to Boston from Ireland, Canada, Turkey, Russia, Norway and the British West Indies; and voters born in Boston and the New England area.

There is much more to explore in our dataset. Take a look and let us know what you find!

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