Alice Paul’s “Silent Sentinel” Pin
name: label: presenter
content: National Woman's Party
label: associated person
content: Paul, Alice
notes: label: Description
content: Women who participated in suffrage picketing received "Silent Sentinel" pins to honor their service. The small silver banners are engraved, "Without Extinction is Liberty." The reverse is engraved, "For service in the cause of the freedom of women Presented by the National Woman’s Party." The phrase "Without Extinction is Liberty" is drawn from a Walt Whitman poem, "By Blue Ontario’s Shore":
label: Description
content: "Without extinction is Liberty, without retrograde is Equality,
label: Description
content: They live in the feelings of young men and the best women,
label: Description
content: (Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been
label: Description
content: always ready to fall for Liberty.)"
label: Description
content: In January 1917, discouraged by President Wilson’s continued opposition to the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) posted pickets at the White House gates—the first people to ever picket the White House. These “silent sentinels” stayed on duty in all weather and in the face of threats, taunts, and physical violence. Using their banners and their quiet courage they asked, "Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait for their Liberty?" and "Mr. President What Will you do for Woman Suffrage?" Hoping to provoke a response, the language on the banners became more inflammatory. They used the president’s own words against him and pointed out the hypocrisy of his leading the country into the First World War to defend freedom while denying it to the women of his own country. Crowds who believed the pickets’ activities were disloyal in a time of war attacked the suffragists and destroyed their banners. In July the police began arresting the pickets for "obstruction of traffic." When they refused to pay fines they were imprisoned. When they went on hunger strikes to demand the rights of political prisoners they were forcibly fed—a painful and invasive procedure. The pickets continued despite the risk. Paul had endured such treatment while she was in England. Although she knew what lay ahead and that she, as the organizer of the picketing, would receive a harsher sentence, she insisted on taking her place on the picket line. She was arrested in October. While in jail she was forcibly fed and threatened with commitment to an insane asylum. Reports of the long sentences, abuse, and the courage of the suffragists became public and all prisoners were released in November.
place: label: associated place
content: United States
topic: label: subject association
content: Women's Suffrage
label: subject association
content: Women's Rights
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, Women's History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
label: See more items in
content: Woman Suffrage
label: Exhibition
content: American Democracy
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Alice Paul Centennial Foundation, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0165.036
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0165.036
label: accession number
content: 1987.0165
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 1 1/2 in x 1 5/8 in x 3/8 in; 3.81 cm x 4.1275 cm x .9779 cm