Iris Calderhead

Iris Calderhead (born Jan. 3, 1889 in Marysville, Kansas) was a suffragist and organizer in the National Woman's Party. She was the daughter of William A. Calderhead, the congressional representative for Kansas' 5th District from 1895 to 1911. She graduated from the University of Kansas and then completed a graduate degree at Bryn Mawr College.

Calderhead became involved in the women's suffrage movement after meeting Doris Stevens and Lucy Burns, leaders of the Congressional Union, in New York City. Her first assignment in 1915 was to help organize the Union's exhibit at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition and the Women's Voter Convention. Calderhead was willing to travel extensively to advocate for suffrage. "I came a long way to work for the union because national suffrage seems to me the biggest political issue before the country," she explained. "I think I ought to be able to convince others of this." In August, 1916, the NWP dispatched teams to states that had already granted suffrage to mobilize support for a federal amendment for women's suffrage. Calderhead was sent to Arizona, which had granted women the right to vote in 1912, along with Vivian Pierce, Ella Thompson, Helen Todd, and Rose Winslow. The group met resistance from the Democratic Party, which opposed women's suffrage and Calderhead reported that members of the party tried to ban the suffragists' meetings.

On July 14, 1917, Calderhead was arrested for picketing the White House and served three days in jail.

From January to June 1918, Calderhead conducted a speaking tour through Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Calderhead was married to John Brisben Walker (d. 1931). During the Great Depression she was an official at the Consumers' Counsel Division of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and authored the 1936 report, Consumer Services of Government Agencies.

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