Belle Sherwin, President of the National League of Women Voters, holding a silver cup to be awarded to the state League showing the greatest increase in voting between 1920 and 1924.
I recently posted an image of Cleveland’s woman suffrage headquarters. An eagle eyed follower wondered whether the Belle Sherwin in that picture was any relation to the the paint company Sherwin-Williams which is headquartered in Cleveland. Turns out, Belle Sherwin is the daughter of Sherwin-Williams co-founder Henry Sherwin and his wife Frances Smith. Belle was an important figure in Cleveland and played a substantial role in several national and international organizations.
A short list of Belle’s accomplishments:
-Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley
-Taught school in Boston and Connecticut
-Organized the Cleveland Consumers’ League
-Served on the board of the Visiting Nurse Association of Cleveland
-Served on the board of the National Urban League, a civil right organization
-President of the Woman Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland
-Vice President, then President of the National League of Women Voters
-Led the US delegations at the 1926 and 1928 congresses for the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship
-Appointed by FDR to the Consumers’ Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration and to the Federal Advisory Council of the US Employment Service
-Vice President of the National Municipal League
-Vice President for North America of the Inter-American Union of Women
-Received honorary degrees from Case Western Reserve, Denison, and Oberlin
