Some of Carrie Chapman Catt’s earliest written words on suffrage and women’s rights are now included in the Archives of Women’s Political Communication.
After graduating from Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1880, Catt (Carrie Lane at the time) returned to her hometown of Charles City, Iowa, to work as a law clerk and, in nearby Mason City, as a schoolteacher and principal. In 1883, she was appointed Mason City school superintendent, one of the first women in the country to hold such a position.
Catt retired from teaching after the end of the 1884 school year and married Leo Chapman, publisher and editor of the Mason City Republican newspaper, in February 1885. In the March 5 issue of The Republican, Catt’s name appeared in the masthead as co-editor of the paper with Chapman, and on March 19, the first installment of her new column, “Woman’s World,” was published.
In Catt’s words: “The ‘Woman’s World’ will be devoted to the discussion of such questions as purport to the welfare, the social, political and intellectual position of women. It will contain news of interest and reports of woman’s work throughout the world. It will welcome communications from its readers and will hope to win many friends. Let those who are interested in the advancement of women speak their sentiments through the ‘Woman’s World.’ ”
Will Walker, a graduate assistant at the Catt Center, discovered that the Mason City Public Library had issues of The Republican on microfilm, including some that included Catt’s column. Last fall, Catt Center communications specialist Sue Cloud began working with Katie Koopman, a librarian at the library, to scan the columns. Cloud has transcribed a number of the columns scanned by Koopman and has added them to the Archives of Women’s Political Communication, with work continuing this spring.
The library has microfilm of every issue of The Republican from 1885 except one, and Catt’s column appears nearly weekly through early November. The Chapmans sold the newspaper in April 1886, and there are no extant copies of the paper from that year.
You can access the transcripts of Catt’s “Woman’s World” columns from her profile in the Archives.