Brief history, additional kit description, & additional photos:

Alice Paul & Lucy Burns, suffragists,  fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment. Two defiant women were activists who broke from the mainstream women's-rights movement and created a more radical wing, daring to push the boundaries of political protest to secure women's voting rights in 1920. Although the protagonists have different personalities and backgrounds - Alice is a Quaker (from PA) and Lucy an Irish Brooklynite (NYC) - they are united in their fierce devotion to women's suffrage. In a country dominated by chauvinism, this is no easy fight, as the women and their volunteers clash with older, conservative activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt of the National Women’s Suffrage Association.  They also battle public opinion in a tumultuous time of war, not to mention the most powerful men in the country, including President Woodrow Wilson .  The women are thrown in jail, with an ensuing hunger strike making headline news. The women's resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname "The Iron Jawed Angels." However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron, and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize the Congressional Union, later known as the National Women's Party (1916). Borrowing the tactics of the radical, militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in England, members of the Woman's Party participate in hunger strikes, picket the White House, and engage in other forms of civil disobedience to publicize the suffrage cause.

Our figure scene depicts Alice & Lucy in the summer of 1918, picketing war time President Woodrow Wilson in front of the US White House (an unspeakable act in that era!)  They were arrested under the charge of “obstructing traffic”, conducted a hunger strike in jail, and were force-fed by the authorities by use of an iron jaw clamp that was affixed to their faces.  Their tactics eventually paid off, as the US Congress and Wilson finally passed the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1919, ratified in 1920.

The kit includes several signs, based on actual signs (as shown in photo), used by the National Women’s Party as they picketed the White House during the Great War, as well as a banner of their “colors” (see photos from the US National Archives below).

Alice Paul is depicted handing out fliers to rally their cause.  Lucy Burns is holding the “Mr. President” sign.

Additional photos:

Individual close-up photos included in vignette (click to enlarge):

Photos of the actual National Women's Party (courtesy of the National Archives) (click to enlarge):