For almost 50 years, American women had been trying to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting them the right to vote; in February 1919, it appeared that one of its biggest hurdles, the U.S. Senate, was about to be cleared. On the fourth, the Pittsburgh Post summed up the situation.

“National woman suffrage, enfranchising 20,000,000 women, appears nearer realization than at any time since the equal suffrage pioneers first launched their fight for a voice through the vote.