March is Women's History Month.

So tonight we bring you a story about a Rhode Islander who was one of the key players in the long fight over voting rights.

Her name was Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and the expression "well-behaved women rarely make history" certainly suited her.

She was a grand socialite of Newport's Gilded Age, who became an outspoken activist, uncommon for females in her era, Alva made waves and made history by transforming women's suffrage into all the rage.

- Her friends called her a bulldog, related her to a bulldog, both because she was short in stature and quite stout, but also because of this power that she exuded as a personality.

- [Pamela] A personality that would help forge a change in the status of women in society from all walks of life.

Multimillionaire Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was an elite member of Newport's Gilded Age and a suffragette.

- Alva was an absolute firecracker, iron willed, imperious.

She was intent in her early years on gaining social power, on rising up in the ranks of high society.

In later years, she was intent on gaining political power.

- [Pamela] Alva was born to privilege, the daughter of a wealthy cotton dealer in Alabama.

She lived in Paris and New York, educated by tutors until her father lost his fortune during the Civil War.

- And it's at this point that Alva really becomes intent on avenging her father's fall and marrying a Vanderbilt in order to kind of regain her foothold in society, which she had lost.

- [Pamela] She married William K Vanderbilt, grandson of railroad and shipping tycoon Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

With his inheritance, they decided to throw a lavish costume ball at their glittering new mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York, where Alva would dress as a Venetian renaissance princess.

- And she invites all of high society except Carrie Astor, the daughter of Mrs. Astor.

- [Pamela] Socialite Caroline Astor had snubbed Alva and had to make amends in order to secure an invitation.

- I hope this isn't a bad moment.

- Not at all.

Won't you sit down?

- [Pamela] A scene from the HBO drama "The Gilded Age" is loosely based on the two high society matrons.

- Indeed, she is no longer invited.

Is that correct?

- [Pamela] In real life there was drama when Alva divorced her husband on grounds of adultery, shocking people in her social circles.

Alva went on to wed Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, the son of another wealthy family.

For 12 years, by all accounts, the Belmonts shared a happy life together.

And then in 1908... - Alva's beloved husband, her second husband, died very suddenly and she was left bereft.

She was feeling adrift.

She was looking for purpose and looking for a challenge.

And at that moment in her life suffrage presented itself.

- [Pamela] Alva was electrified by lectures on women's suffrage in New York.

After meeting with leaders in the movement Alva was galvanized.

And she had a knack for promotion and image.

To the horror of her neighbors, she decided to use her Newport summer cottage, Marble House, to make a splash for her newfound cause.

So she wasn't afraid to flock convention?

- That's right.

You know many women's suffragist prior to Alva were much more modest.

But Alva, she was intent on garnering public attention.

She was intent on spreading the word as far and wide as possible, and on bringing in as many people as she could into the movement, including African American women and working class women.

This went against the domestic ideal of femininity at the time.

- [Pamela] Alva starts courting the press, allowing journalists to document her fashions, home designs, and parties.

With the press in tow she holds the first major convention for women's suffrage.

Even Newport Summer resident, 90 year old Julia Ward Howe, who wrote "Battle Hymn of the Republic," attended in her wicker wheelchair and spoke at the event.

Alva used the mystique of Marble House to draw a thousand people to her home.

- [Nicole] This was the first time that any of the Newport mansions had been opened to the public, had their doors flung open.

There was a mile long traffic jam in Newport with visitors lining up to enter the house.

- [Pamela] She charged a dollar for admission to the grounds and $5 for entry into the mansion itself.

All proceeds promoting suffrage.

Her opulent, extravagant lifestyle was on full display.

Her French inspired dining room, the marble staircase, her collections from Europe.

- This was really the first time that the public got a glimpse of life inside the Newport mansions.

Someone asked her, "Why are you opening Marble House to the public?

Why not just quietly give money to the cause?"

And she said, "To do that, if I were to just give money, that would just be like giving a dog a bone.

What the cause needs is a warrior."

And she defined herself as a warrior.

- [Pamela] And she was.

Marshaling change through another strategy, mass merchandising.

- We have examples here of China that Alva commissioned from John Maddock and Sons, a British manufacturer, for use at the 1914 suffrage convention, called "The Conference of Great Women at Marble House."

- And she made sure they got the message.

- Absolutely.

- [Pamela] Alva would sell the dishes to raise money.

Something the Newport Preservation Society continues today.

The dinnerware debuted at Alva's second Marble House convention for suffrage in 1914.

- And on that occasion, she spoke from the speaker's lectern, as did her daughter, Consuelo Vanderbilt, who came back from England where she had married the Duke of Marlboro.

So Consuelo herself at this point is a major celebrity and a major draw.

And the two of them together spoke on the issue of women's suffrage.

- Do we know anything about that speech?

I mean, were they fiery?

- Oh, they were fiery.

In fact, they commanded the crowds that day.

For a woman to speak, especially speak about politics publicly in this period, it was breaking convention.

- [Pamela] She took her cause even further, building this Chinese teahouse right behind her Newport mansion.

Asian art was in vogue during the Edwardian Period, but there was more meaning to this structure.

Inside the teahouse research is now underway into the inscriptions and imagery connecting Alva to the suffrage movement of Chinese-American women.

Alva went on to co-found the National Women's Party.

By 1916, the group had organized what would be the first protest outside the White House.

Something Williams says was a watershed moment.

- This was when suffrage becomes fashionable.

In fact, there was one San Francisco writer who said that these celebrity women, these gilded suffragist in this period, mainly Alva, they helped to transform suffrage into the hobby of American women.

It's thrilling and it's inspirational.

Alva was an inspiration.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues)