Basic Information

Alva Belmont was born in Mobile, Alabama on January 17th, 1853. Throughout Belmont’s earlier years, Belmont worked her way up the social ladder in New York due to her love for architecture and interior design. With the help of her social status, Belmont was able to join the National American Women’s Suffrage Association where she played a huge part in spreading awareness, and then later joined the Congressional Union (CU), where she became a prominent leader in pushing for the 19th amendment to be passed (Buell, 1990).

Background Information

Alva Belmont was born in Mobile, Alabama on January 17th, 1853. Growing up, Belmont was the middle child of five children and was labeled as an “impossible child”. When Belmont was only four years old, her brother passed away, and vividly remembered family friends making horrible remarks to her parents about how it’s more tragic that her brother died than a daughter (Hoffert, 2011, pp. 1-3). Alva never forgot this incident as it was an awakening to what male privilege and the patriarchal social system entailed. Due to this incident, she became extremely sensitive about the devaluation of girls. She started hanging out with boys more and discovered that boys had a lot more freedom to express themselves than girls. This fueled Belmont to rebel as a child and pushed her, even more, to refuse to conform to the expectations that a traditional woman had. By the time Alva was an adult, she had grown a reputation for being bossy and demanding but still continued to act this way to challenge the social convention. Aside from her reputation, Alva married a man named William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1875 when she was only twenty-two years old. After marrying Vanderbilt, she was offered more opportunities to work on construction projects in Long Island, New York City, Newport, and Rhode Island due to Vanderbilt having huge amounts of assets from his parents (Hoffert, 2011, pp. 3-23). She was offered to design an elaborate French Chateau on Fifth Avenue, and most notably, the Marble House. The Marble House opened in 1892 and included French decorative arts from the time of François I through the Baroque Pe. During the next forty years, Belmont continued to construct or remodel buildings for her own use and would later use these buildings as centers for women’s organizations (Buell, 1990, pp. 221-222).

Contributions to the First Wave

In 1908, Alva Belmont was visiting London and was inspired by The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The WSPU was founded in 1903 by Manchester labor activist Emmeline Pankhurst. The WSPU tactics were to approach women’s rights in a militant way. They believed by approaching women’s rights this way, it would further provoke the discussion of the issue. The WSPU members attended many political rallies and fought public officials about the issue of suffrage. Belmont witnessed women marching through the streets of London with inspiring banners and flaming torches. Alva identified with these women because she was “a born rebel”, who since childhood, had a deep resentment about women’s place in society (Hoffert, 2011, pp 73-76).

Once Belmont arrived back home in America, Belmont began to take tactics that she learned from London and applied it to women’s suffrage in America.  In 1909, Alva Belmont joined the most prominent organization for women suffrage, the National American Women’s Suffrage Association in America (NAWSA). Belmont became a leading figure in the movement due to her accessibility of gathering large crowds together with her buildings. Belmont was able to donate the Armory house in New York for suffrage speakers, and was also able to use the Marble House for public fundraising (Buell, 1990, pp. 226).  Belmont used the Marble House for public figures to come and give suffrage lectures, which helped gain attraction from over 1,100 people. In addition, Belmont also built a new large room on 477 Madison Avenue in New York to serve as a lecture hall for suffragists (Hoffert, 2011, 76). By the end of 1909, Belmont was able to move the NAWSA headquarters from New York to Ohio because she believed it was more of a practical location for political action. While down in Ohio, Belmont also extended her support and money in other movements such as the workers’ right movement. She opened an agricultural training school specifically for women to help them get into the working job field (Buell, 1990, pp. 226). While simultaneously opening up her school, Belmont was building new clubs back in New York. Belmont had established eleven suffrage clubs located in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Long Island. These clubs organized suffrage meetings, and also offered public speaking classes, music programs, and reading rooms to a variety of different people. With the success of her clubs, Belmont began publishing a weekly column in the society section of the Chicago Sunday Tribune, to spread more awareness about suffrage in April of 1912. Belmont added her own view on feminist philosophy to influence the outcome of the upcoming 1914 November elections. In her column, she emphasized that women had special responsibilities as mothers, but they also had an important role to play in reforming society. She would attack those who opposed suffrage and identified the benefits of why all women should have access to the ballot. (Hoffert, 2011, 80-86)

By 1913, Alva Belmont left the National American Women’s Suffrage Association due to conflicts on tactics and strategies being used. However, at the same time, Alice Paul had made her own union, the Congressional Union (CU). This union was organized to help promote national suffrage through organizing women voters. Alva believed that the CU was the only one that was going to be able to pass an amendment, therefore became a member quickly after leaving NAWSA (Buell,2011, pp. 220). Alice Paul believed it was very important for the CU to exploit both Belmont’s fame and money to gain attraction for the movement. Once Belmont joined, she thought of new ways to promote the CU in the press, and how to solicit money for the union. By the end of 1914, she had donated $12,600 to the organization (Hoffert, 2011, 98). Belmont was also able to get the CU to go to Newport Gatherings, where both conservative suffragists and radical activists can talk on strategic principles to support each other.  Alva also presented her own feminist convocation, the Conference of Great Women, which served as an effective tactic to get the press to come. During the conference, speakers addressed all types of sorts of different problems such as low wages, child labor, and the suffrage movement (Buell,2011, pp. 227-229). By 1919, the CU became the National Woman’s Party (NWP), and Congress eventually passed the 19th amendment (Buell, 2011, 227). By August of 1920, Belmont deeply urged Alice Paul and members of the NWP to launch a campaign to eliminate gender discrimination in the United States after moving to France. During her time in France, she also launched a campaign to help women have the same citizenship rights as men before coming back to the states where she and Paul would issue the “Declaration of Principles” in 1922. This declaration of principles demands “equality in all realms of life: education, the professions, labor, the church, sexual activity, jury duty, marriage, property and citizen” (Buell,2011, pp. 236). It helped pushed that women would be guaranteed equal access to education and employment. It also demanded equal pay for equal work, believed woman had the own right to control their own property and bodies, and also a right right to divorce, and a right to custody of her children. By 1929, the NWP purchased a house in Washington, D.C, to serve as the headquarters for the movement, and dedicated it to Alva Belmont, which is now known as the Sewall-Belmont House National Historic Site.  In her last years, Belmont and Paul helped established the International Advisory Council of the NWP to help monitor the legal position of women abroad (Hoffert, n.d.).

Rise above unremunerative, unrecognized servitude. Be a strength to your children, never a subordinate. The world is calling for the great half force.

– Alva Belmont (Buell, 2011, 236)

Analysis and Conclusion

Alva Belmont was proven to be a strong, well-connected, and respectful woman throughout her lifetime. From a very young age, Belmont saw the privileges men had in society compared to women, and used her voice and power to challenge the social norms being placed on women until her death. Through her love of architecture and interior design, Belmont was able to design the most beautiful buildings throughout the East Coast, and used these buildings to help capture the importance of women rights to thousands of women and men around the world. Belmont continued to join movements, used her fame to spread awareness, and donated her own money to advocate for women’s suffrage. If it wasn’t for Belmont’s ability to use her platform in a meaningful way, many women might have never even gotten to know about the movement, nor participate in the movement. By 1932, Belmont died from a stroke, but left $100,000 to the NWP in her own will. Belmont’s body was returned to New York in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In honor of her legacy, the delegates of the Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, signed an equal nationality treaty in late 1933. In addition, Franklin Roosevelt signed the Equal Nationality Act, the act that provided citizenship to Americans regardless of the marriage status in May, 24, 1934 (Hoffert, n.d.) Belmont’s time, money, and social status were a critical success of the women’s rights movement.

 

(Image) A. Dupont & Stadler Photographing Co, N. Y. (1911) Alva E. Belmont. The United States New York Newport Rhode Island, 1911. Copyright. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000007/. Washington on 2022-01-21 01:48:10.

Buell, J. W. (1990). Alva Belmont: From Socialite to Feminist. The Historian, 52(2), 219–241. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24447643

Hoffert, S. D. (2011). Alva Vanderbilt Belmont : Unlikely Champion of Women’s Rights, Indiana University Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=670315.Created from 

Hoffert, S. D. (n.d.). Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3054

(Image) Woman Suffrage Gathering at Newport Marble House, 1909. New York Times, New York City, New York, 9-12- 0:00. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/rbcmiller002016/.