Just Desserts
Are not our desserts and salads things of beauty and the joy of the moment?
— Excerpt from the Washington Women’s Cookbook
We created our food-themed seventh broadside in honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in our home state of Washington—and in gratitude to all the “cooks” involved, whose bi-partisan effort it took to achieve it. Four prominent Washington suffragists—Emma Smith DeVoe, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, May Arkwright Hutton, and Bernice Sapp—helped publish the Washington Women’s Cookbook to sell at Seattle’s 1909 AYP (Alaska-Yukon-Pacific) Exposition. Built on the premise that the way to a man’s heart (and vote) was through his stomach, the book extolled the virtues of making beautiful things, and the simple joy of desserts and salads. Sprinkled among the recipes and domestic advice were inspirational suffragist quotes—reassuring male voters that the women in their lives would continue homemaking once they had the right to vote: “Give us the vote and we will cook, the better for a wide outlook.” Emma, Cora, May and Bernice worked through differences in personalities, social backgrounds and political parties to create a winning recipe, helping Washington women win the right to vote in 1910—a full decade before women’s suffrage was achieved on the national level.
You can learn more about this piece on our blog.
Year created
2010
At issue
Bipartisanship and political compromise
Edition size
100 prints
Significance of edition number
The centennial of women’s suffrage in Washington state
Donation
A portion of the proceeds were donated to the Washington State Library, which houses the entire collection of papers and correspondence of the state’s suffragist movement and the four women we researched. We also began our tradition of making donations with this piece.