2020 marks one hundred years since the nineteenth amendment allowed women to vote in the U.S. But Wyoming women have had the right to vote for 50 years longer than the rest of the country.
In 1871 Congress heard advocates of women's suffrage. Cheyenne Juror Amalia Post was one of them. She spoke about Wyoming's experience for the assembled congressmen.
Post found herself in the company of notable women's rights leaders such as Isabella Beecher Hooker. Hooker offered to pay for Post to stay and continue agitating in Washington. But Post returned to Wyoming and pressured governor John Campbell to defend women’s suffrage against state legislators.
Learn more about Wyoming's unique suffrage history in the collections at UW's American Heritage Center.