Caroline Lexow Babcock papers, 1898-1962

Caroline Lexow Babcock (1882-1980) was an American pacifist and suffragist. Born in New York in February 1882, she graduated from Barnard College in 1904 and went on to become a full-time suffragist. She served as executive secretary to Harriot Stanton Blatch at the Women’s Political Union and held leadership roles in the College Equal Suffrage League of New York. In 1921, she co-founded the Women’s Peace Union after departing the Women’s Peace Society, and that same year chaired a women’s peace march in New York City. Babcock co-authored a proposed constitutional amendment to remove war powers from Congress and later served on the Executive Committee and board of the Birth Control Federation of America. She also worked with Alice Paul to advance the Equal Rights Amendment, the fate of which would occupy the rest of her life. Caroline Lexow Babcock died in 1980, at the age of 98, still wearing a button supporting the Equal Rights Amendment.