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Hattie W. Caraway (D-AR)


Related Link: Hattie W. Caraway: A Featured Biography

Image of Hattie W. Caraway with gavel as the Senate's acting president pro tempore.

credit: United States Senate Historical Office

Hattie Caraway became the first woman to formally take up the gavel as the Senate's acting president pro tempore on October 19, 1943. In this photo Caraway holds a traditional gavel (not the Senate’s unique ivory gavel) as she reenacts the historic event for reporters.