Tag: Abigail Scott Duniway

The New Northwest added to Historic Oregon Newspapers!

Posted on by srabun@uoregon.edu

The Oregon Digital Newspaper Program is excited to announce the addition of Portland’s historic suffragist newspaper The New Northwest to our free online collection of digitized and keyword-searchable content at Historic Oregon Newspapers!

Portland the New Northwest, June 8, 1877
Front page of Portland's the New Northwest, June 8, 1877

For sixteen years, between 1871 and 1887, The New Northwest blazed a progressive and iconoclastic trail, bringing much-needed attention to controversial issues such as suffrage, worker’s rights, temperance, racial inequality, civil liberties, immigration, and human rights.  The paper advocated tirelessly for the equal rights of American Indians and Chinese immigrants even as the general press remained openly hostile to such causes.  Most famously, the paper was instrumental in agitating for the nascent women’s suffrage movement in the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to its influential and highly political journalistic content, The New Northwest also served as a significant publisher of quality literary content.  Poems, serialized fiction, and literary non-fiction reflecting the newspaper’s progressive political stance were published alongside regional and national news.  Following a change in ownership in 1887, the paper continued for another two years as a purely literary journal.

The uncommonly forward-thinking agenda of this firebrand newspaper was coordinated under the guidance of Abigail Scott Duniway, Oregon’s “Mother of Equal Suffrage”.  Duniway saw The New Northwest as an instrument of social change, a tool for the “[e]nfranchisment of women and full emancipation of speech, press and people from every fetter of law or custom that retards the free mental and physical growth of the highest form of humanity.”

Though women’s suffrage in Oregon was not to become a reality during the run of The New Northwest, Duniway would continue to fight tirelessly for the cause.  In 1912, following a lifetime of struggle, Duniway was asked by Governor Oswald West to author and sign the Oregon Proclamation of Equal Suffrage.  This historic and hard-won victory was sealed when Duniway registered, at the age of 79, as the first female voter in Multnomah County.

Abigail Scott Duniway. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.
Abigail Scott Duniway. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Happy Birthday, Abigail Scott Duniway

Posted on by srabun@uoregon.edu

Abigail Scott Duniway, acclaimed as “Oregon’s Mother of Suffrage,” was born on October 22, 1834. That makes today a most opportune time to announce that the suffragist newspaper that Duniway published and edited, The New Northwest of Portland, has been confirmed as our final title for digitization in NDNP phase 1!

We had to clear a couple of hurdles with this one:

1.) Confirming that The New Northwest qualified for funding based upon both NDNP project guidelines and the formalities of serials cataloging. Could Duniway’s journal rightly be called a newspaper, or was it more accurately a magazine? This may sound like hair-splitting, but these distinctions truly matter in the world of the library. We were pleased that The New Northwest was judged to be a newspaper, and therefore qualified for inclusion in NDNP.

2.) We discovered that our library’s service copies of The New Northwest microfilm were not matched by master negatives in our archive. In fact, we had none of the negatives on hand at all! Luckily, we managed to track down negatives at the Oregon Historical Society, who have generously agreed to provide us with copies of the negatives. (Libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions generally circulate positive prints, but are often much more reluctant about sharing copies of their master negatives. OHS really was exceptionally co-operative here, so thanks are due to them!)

2012 will mark the 100-year anniversary of woman’s suffrage in Oregon. Cultural institutions throughout the state will be commemorating this milestone, and we are very pleased that the paper that was at the forefront of the struggle, The New Northwest, will be available and accessible to the public via our digital resource.

Political poster from 1912 campaign for woman's suffrage in Oregon.
Poster from 1912 campaign for woman's suffrage in Oregon. (from Oregon Historical Society, OHS digital no. bb004107)

In the meantime, Abigail Scott Duniway’s life remains, as always, a fascinating and informative subject.  Oregon Public Broadcasting has substantial Duniway web pages that are a great starting place for learning more about “the pioneer suffragist of the great Northwest.” For a wider overview of the history of woman’s rights and citizenship in Oregon, Kimberly Jensen’s article from the Oregon Historical Quarterly is recommended.