Missouri T.B. Hanna (1857-1926) was the first woman publisher in Washington State, and was heralded as “the mother of journalism” in Washington.

Hanna, who also went by “Mrs. M.T.B. Hanna,” moved to Spokane Falls in Washington Territory in 1882, and then to the waterfront mill town of Edmonds in 1904. In 1905 Hanna purchased the weekly "Edmonds Review" and published it for the five years before selling the paper to a competitor in 1910. A passionate and articulate supporter of women’s causes, Hanna then published two journals on women’s suffrage. “Votes for Women,” the official newspaper of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association, worked towards attaining the vote in the November 1910 election. It ran from October 1909 through January 1911 with news on suffrage work throughout Washington state and nationally, and included editorials, political commentary, and cartoons. After the vote was won, the paper continued for another year as “The New Citizen,” which endorsed political candidates and focused on the role of newly enfranchised women.

Missouri Hanna also developed Hanna Park, a neighborhood in Edmonds, and helped found the Snohomish County Press Association.

This cover of the May 1910 "Votes for Women" takes issue with President Taft, a proponent of women's suffrage, over his recent statement that only the "less desirable women" would exercise the right to vote. An article in the issue refutes this mistaken belief with facts and statistics about the large percentages of women voters in states with equal suffrage, for example, that in Colorado, 80 percent of women register to vote and 72 percent vote.

Caption information source: “Hanna, Missouri T. B. (1857-1926)” by Charles P. LeWarne, Historylink.org Essay 9029
Caption information source: “Woman Suffrage Campaign — Snohomish County (1909-1910)” by Margaret Riddle, HistoryLink.org Essay 8690