The Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States (OBD) offers short biographies of about 3,670 grassroots women suffragists. Their activism was concentrated in the period 1890-1920, but also occurred before and after those years.

Using the names of suffragists found in contemporary publications and other sources, we have used online databases and newspapers to support biographical sketches of thousands of women heretofore not featured in historical accounts of the movement. In this way we seek to expand historical understanding of the movement and its supporters.

Written entirely by volunteers, the sketches include three groups: militants associated with the National Woman’s Party, Black suffragists affiliated with a variety of local and national organizations, and mainstream suffragists affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The sketches place women's suffrage activism within the frame of women's broader social agenda, before and after the passage of the 19th Amendment in August 1920. For the convenience of scholars and students, we also include previously published biographical sketches of well-known suffragists, such as those found in Notable American Women and Notable Black American Women.

The OBD consists of three parts:

Part I: Militant Women Suffragists—National Woman's Party

Part II: Black Women Suffragists

Part III: Mainstream Suffragists—National American Woman Suffrage Association