Dedication
Woman suffrage leader, Abigail Scott Duniway.
Learn more about Duniway in the Woman Suffrage Centennial Web exhibit, the State Symbols Learning Resources, and in the Notable Oregonians Guide.
The 2011–2012 Oregon Blue Book is dedicated to the persistent and passionate women and men of Oregon who fought for women’s suffrage.
In Oregon, which held more referenda votes on the women’s suffrage than any other state, suffragists worked for over 40 years and witnessed losses in 1884, 1900, 1906, 1908, and 1910 before finally winning suffrage in 1912.
To Abigail Scott Duniway, a remarkable mother of six, who found the time and energy to be a mother, wife and the driving force behind women’s suffrage. Her national work on women’s issues and her leadership of the Northwest fight for suffrage earned her the title “Oregon’s leading woman.”
Duniway became the first woman to register to vote in Oregon and was the first woman in any state to write a suffrage proclamation in her own hand. In 1914, Duniway finally cast a ballot in Oregon, just months before she died at 80 years of age.
To the men — 61,265 of them — who voted “yes” in 1912, paving the way for Oregon to become the seventh state in the nation to gain suffrage for women. The measure passed by a relatively narrow margin of 4,161 votes.
For the women and men who sacrificed so much in order to ensure women the right to vote, we pay tribute to these courageous people and respectfully dedicate this 100th anniversary edition of the Oregon Blue Book to them.
Introduction from Sec. of State Kate Brown | Welcome from Governor John Kitzhaber