January 17, 1853

Women’s suffrage leader Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont was born in Mobile. The daughter of a cotton merchant, Belmont eventually joined the highest rungs of New York society through marriages into the wealthy Vanderbilt and Belmont families. Belmont later used that wealth and status to promote a radical approach to suffrage reform that included sponsored parades, mass meetings and pro-strike rallies. She joined the National Woman’s Party (NWP) in 1914 and spent much of her time organizing special events and fundraising for a wide range of women’s rights across international borders. In 2016, President Barack Obama designated the NWP’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in honor of Belmont and suffragist Alice Paul.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Alva E. Vanderbilt dressed for a ball, March 1883. (Photographed by Jose Maria Mora, https://www.nyhistory.org/, Wikipedia)

Childhood home of Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt in Mobile. The house was built in 1852 and demolished in 1930. The site is now the northeast portion of Mobile Government Plaza. (Historic Mobile Preservation Society, Wikipedia)

Portrait Alva Belmont, 1911. (Stadler Photographing Co., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

William K. and Alva Vanderbilt mansion, New York City, c. 1885-1895. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Portrait Alva Belmont, c. 1919. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.