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Women's Suffrage Museum Events & Cultural Center

Mission statement for Suffrage Coalition Inc.’s Project: Women’s Suffrage Museum – Events & Culture Center - Locate and preserve the epic history of the movement that brought democracy to the other half of our citizens. Use accurate, immersive storytelling to inspire future generations to value their rights and faithfully perform their duties as citizens.

Ada Cooke Settle (1864-1927)

Ada Cooke Settle

When nine forward-thinking women gathered in the back parlor of Nashville's Tulane Hotel on September 20, 1911, to quietly change the course of Tennessee history, Ada Cooke Settle was trusted with the ink. Elected as the first Recording Secretary of the newly formed Nashville Equal Suffrage League, Ada held the heavy responsibility of documenting a movement that the political establishment still viewed as a radical fringe.While her husband, Tecumseh Gore (T.G.) Settle, worked just blocks away as a high-level state official recording the strictly male-dominated machinery of the Tennessee government, Ada was methodically writing the minutes, strategy, and roster of the underground groundswell that would eventually dismantle it. Under her executive pen, the League’s official membership exploded from those nine original charter members to an unstoppable force of over five thousand, proving that the quiet pen of a secretary could rewrite the future of American democracy.

"A woman's place is in the home... but she shouldn't stay there."