Photos – Before the parade

 

The parade was not scheduled to begin until 3 p.m. on that Monday. One of the advantages of the mid-afternoon start was to give out-of-town marchers much of the day to arrive in Washington. As they came in to Union Station and other points in the city, they were directed to the areas on the west and south sides of the U.S. Capitol building. The head of the parade would form at the Garfield Monument and then move toward the Peace Monument and then onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The hour or two before the parade provided an excellent time for photographers to take pictures of the parade participants. Since the parade was not in progress, the marchers could stand still for the cameras. Unfortunately, most of the photographers seemed to concentrate on the beginning of the parade rather than lugging their bulky cameras around to the south of the Capitol to capture the other participants. Photojournalists of the day were also not attuned to keeping specific records of what they shot, so we do not always know everyone who appears in the picture. Still, to look at these pictures in their entiriety is to get a sense of the excitement and anticipation everyone must have felt during those moments before the parade began.

 

More photos from Seeing Suffrage can be found on these pages:

Planning the parade

The Suffrage Hikers

Before the parade

Upper Pennsylvania Avenue before the parade

Starting the parade

The pageant

The struggle up Pennsylvania Avenue

The end of the parade

Woodrow Wilson’s inaugural