Ella Riegel

Ella Riegel (1867 - January 20, 1937) was an American suffragist and women's rights activist. Riegel was a graduate of the first class of Bryn Mawr College and would remain associated with the college the rest of her life.

Regel was born in 1866 in Pennsylvania.^[1] Riegel was part of the first class of Bryn Mawr College and graduated in 1889.^[2][3] She became interested in anthropology and archaeology.^[1] Riegel was also good with finances and made money through investing in stocks.^[1]

Riegel promoted the cause of women's suffrage in many different ways. She was first part of the Congressional Union for Woman's Suffrage, where she served on their finance committee.^[1] Later, she joined the National Woman's Party (NWP).^[1] In 1916, she was part of the "Suffrage Special," a group of more than twenty suffragists who traveled to the West to promote woman's suffrage.^[1][4][5] Riegel served as the business manager for the Suffrage Special.^[6] Along with Mrs. Charles Wister Ruschenberger, she sent photographs of a "women's liberty bell" to each United States Senator.^[7] The bell had a chained tongue, so it could not ring.^[7] In 1919, Riegel met with James P. Goodrich, Governor of Indiana, to urge him to call a special legislative session to ratify the woman's suffrage amendment.^[8]

In a 75-woman protest carried out on February 9, 1919, Riegel was arrested.^[9] The protest was part of a series of "watch fires" carried out by the NWP due to the failure of the Senate to pass the 19th amendment.^[9] Riegel carried a suffrage banner and was one of 47 women arrested.^[9] She later helped organize the Prison Special to raise awareness about the imprisonment of activists and the inhumane treatment they received in jail.^[1]

After women won suffrage rights, Riegel continued to fight for expanding rights in Pennsylvania, where she served as the chair of the state NWP.^[10] Riegel also fought for women's independent citizenship and full guardianship of their own children.^[11][12] Riegel was the woman's party delegate to the Hague conference for the Codification of International Law in 1930.^[13] She traveled through Europe and Latin America and worked with the Women's Consultative Committee of the League of Nations.^[1]

Riegel died in her apartment on Bryn Mawr campus on January 20, 1937.^[3] She left $100,000 from her estate to Bryn Mawr, and an archaeology scholarship was created in her name.^[14] In 1940, an archaeological museum named for Riegel was opened in the Bryn Mawr library.^[15]

• Ella Riegel Study Collection Archived 2020-04-19 at the Wayback Machine