In the early 20th century, after more than sixty-five years of fighting for women’s rights with no laws passed to insure them, the suffrage movement was in need of revitalization. So women focused on recapturing the public’s attention through various provocative actions. One strategy was to drop “Suffrage Bombs” (leaflets) from planes onto crowds below.

Rosalie Jones (General Jones as she was dubbed by the press), of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, was the first to do just that. In May of 1913, Jones dropped women’s suffrage leaflets onto carnival-goers at an airplane show in Staten Island, NY. Three years later, Lucy Burns, along with pilot Terah Tom Maroney, dropped leaflets over Seattle to advertise the upcoming National Woman’s Party convention in Chicago.

But the most theatrical use of the suffrage bomb strategy was conducted by two other NAWSA members - Mrs. John Blair and pilot Leda Richberg-Hornsby. On December 2, 1916, from a two-seater biplane, these intrepid suffragists set out to “bomb” President Wilson with yellow leaflets in support of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, a provocative stunt that would make quite an impression for the suffrage cause. Members of the New York branch of NAWSA gathered at a nearby airfield at 5:45pm to cheer on their fearless sisters. However, about a mile into the flight, high winds made it clear that this bombing would have to be aborted. The plane crash land in a swamp on Staten Island with neither suffragist sustaining serious injuries. They were, however, heartily disappointed to have failed in their mission to so dramatically draw the President’s and the public’s attention to women’s suffrage that day.

“This is war for woman’s rights,” said the pilot, “I am proud to fly for you.”