Anna Howard Shaw died on July 2, 1919, in Moylan, Pennsylvania, just over a year before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.
Anna Howard Shaw died on July 2, 1919, at her home in Moylan, Pennsylvania, at the age of 72. Her death came just over a year before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920, which granted women the right to vote nationwide—the cause to which she had dedicated much of her adult life.
In her final years, Shaw remained active in public service, chairing the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense during World War I, for which she was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, becoming the first woman to receive this honor. She also campaigned for the League of Nations and international peace efforts in the months before her death.
Her passing was mourned nationally as the loss of one of the suffrage movement's most eloquent and tireless leaders. Shaw did not live to cast a legal vote in a U.S. presidential election, a poignant reminder of the decades-long struggle for women's enfranchisement. Her legacy endured through the eventual passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, and she is remembered today through institutions such as the Anna Howard Shaw Center at Boston University and her induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame, commemorating her contributions as minister, physician, and suffrage leader.