Walter Wellman (1879-1949) was a widely published comic
artist, appearing in a number of magazines and newspapers.
Beginning in 1906, Wellman also began self-publishing his
postcards, often in sets, such as Merry Widow Wiles, The
Weaker Sex, and The Suffragette. Wellman stopped
publishing for many years and then returned in the 1940s
with several series of comic postcards featuring fat women.
Wellman never did a Leap Year series, but this particular card,
from 1909, is from The Suffragette series. Many people forget
how hard women had to work to win the right to vote (or
suffrage) and that they only gained that right less than 100
years ago. The women who fought for universal suffrage were
called suffragettes at the time. The “ette” ending, a diminutive,
is less common today, and the preferred term is suffragist.
During the heyday of Leap Year cards, voting rights was
becoming a hot issue. Wellman’s card makes the most
explicit reference, but other cards hint at this theme.
The supposed threats to gender roles implicit in Leap Year
and suffrage made for a natural pairing. Suffrage cards are
very collectible and tend to go for a much higher price than
Leap Year cards.
As is evident from the titles, many of Wellman’s early series
are misogynistic, featuring grotesque women with towering
hairstyles dwarfing the men they harangue or harass. He was
clearly against women’s suffrage. This Leap Year card has
several possible implied meanings. First, with suffrage, men
might no longer be necessary. The main meaning seems to
be that if women were given the right to vote, they would
somehow become unfeminine, wearing men’s clothing and
smoking pipes. His caricature of the suffragette shows that he
feels that an “unfeminine” woman is somehow grotesque,
contrasting her long lashes, earrings, large hair bow, and coy
gestures
with her tuxedo and pipe. It’s interesting that the
elements he chooses to symbolize her femininity are entirely
lacking from the more traditionally feminine woman on the right.
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