Men's League for Women's Suffrage pin. (LSE Library/Wikimedia Commons)

Rabbi S. Stephen Wise was a founding member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage, an American group formed in 1910. Within a few years, the membership organization had acquired some reputable movers and shakers of the day, including the philosopher John Dewey, progressive publisher Oswald Garrison Villard, author Max Eastman, journalist George Creel, and banker/philanthropist George Foster Peabody.

The organization's charter stated: “the purpose of this league shall be to express approval of the movement of women to attain the full suffrage in this country, and to aid them in their efforts toward that end by public appearances in behalf of the cause, by the circulation of literature, the holding of meetings, and in such other ways as from time to time seem desirable.”

With that goal in mind, members marched, held fundraisers, wrote editorials, gave speeches, lobbied legislators, represented suffragists in court, and yes, even produced a phonograph recording calling for a woman's right to vote.

1915 Pathe' recording by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.

(A. Lanset Collection)

The flip side of this rare 1915 record has the voice of Gertrude Foster Brown, head of the New York State Women's Suffrage Association. You can read about her and hear what she had to say at: Listen to a 101-Year-Old Clarion Call for Women's Suffrage Preserved in Shellac.

Special thanks to Daniel Sbardella for his expert sonic extraction from the vertically cut grooves at 80 rpm.