Bertha Margaret Boyé

Artist of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

Bertha Margaret Boyé was born on May 5, 1883, in Oakland, California. Her father and mother—a cabinet maker and homemaker, respectively—emigrated from Germany.

At the age of twenty-two, Boyé sued the editor of UC Berkeley’s student newspaper. They had published one of her illustrations without payment. The editor felt payment wasn’t required, since she worked for the paper. Boyé disagreed, and demanded $25 ($800 today).

After studying at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (located at the time in a sprawling mansion at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco) Boyé entered into a poster contest. The contest was sponsored by the College Equal Suffrage League.