Very rare: Wyoming was the first state (and indeed the first territory) guaranteeing women the right to vote.
In fact, this right was already enshrined in 1869 when Wyoming was still a territory. It was followed by Colorado in 1893, Idaho in 1896 and other Western states before the 19th Amendment made it a constitutional right.
Article 6, section 1 reads: “The rights of citizens of the State of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall equally enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.”
A number of factors likely contributed toward Wyoming being the first to extend suffrage to women. “Western territories were desperately eager for publicity which would attract population. Free advertising was a common explanation in the 1870’s and 1880’s for Wyoming’s action. The Cheyenne Leader, for example, said, when the act was adopted: ’We now expect at once quite an immigration of ladies to Wyoming”; and it added in March, 1870, that this legislation was “nothing more or less than a shrewd advertising dodge. A cunning device to obtain for Wyoming a widespread notoriety’” (Larson).
The first issue is complete in 60 rather than 61pp. OCLC locates only digital copies, but we find copies at LoC and Yale.
Streeter, 2258; Larson, T.A. “Woman Suffrage in Wyoming” in The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 2 (April, 1965), pp.57-58.
