The comments we received were amazing. The tree was regularly covered with notes (as you can see from the photos) and the notes mentioned all sorts of women — most often family members, mothers, grandmothers, aunts — but sometimes women from the visitor’s personal past. Many also mentioned women from Evanston today and from Evanston history. Many were written by children. We hoped it made the exhibit a little more fun and personal.

This web site is in some ways an online extension of that tree. We have received comments about the women we’ve highlighted here. Some of those comments reference a personal connection to the stories we are telling. We’d love to continue the conversation about the meaning women, especially Evanston women, have had in our virtual visitor’s lives. So, write your comments here…

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May Wood Simons

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day and this moment has a surprising Evanston connection in May Wood Simons. Simons and her husband, Algie, were Evanston residents for many years and were active in the early years of the Socialist Party in America. Simons wrote for and edited several socialist publications, including the Worker’s Call, the Chicago Daily Socialist, and the Internationalist Social Review.

In 1909, the first National Woman’s Day was held throughout the United States on February 28th. It was organized by the newly formed Woman’s National Committee of the Socialist Party to celebrate the political rights of women. May Wood Simons was a delegate to, and later head of, the committee and spoke in favor of the Socialist party supporting women’s suffrage. To celebrate this first Woman’s Day, Simons gave a lecture about women’s suffrage at the Evanston Auditorium.

For the 1910 Woman’s Day, Simons spoke at the Garrick theater in Chicago, lecturing about the relationship between the women’s movement and the industrial and economic movement of workers. That same year, Simons was the American delegate to the International Socialist Congress at Copenhagen, where Clara Zetkin was inspired to create a similar celebration in Germany and Austria, founding International Woman’s Day the next year, in 1911. In the U.S., 1911 Woman’s Day was celebrated with lectures by several prominent speakers at Carnegie Hall in New York City, including Simons and fellow Chicagoan Florence Kelley.

Although we don’t know how Simons celebrated subsequent Woman’s Days, she did resign from the Woman’s National Committee in 1914 because of what she felt was a lack of care for women’s issues by the Socialist Party. Afterwards, Simons devoted herself to the cause of Americanization of immigrants during the First World War. She continued to work for women’s issues, especially women’s suffrage, and gained a position of leadership in the League of Women Voters once suffrage was achieved.

Simons later pursued a PhD in economics from Northwestern University, which she received in 1930, and also became a part-time instructor there. She published an economics textbook in 1945 entitled Everyday Problems in Economics. Though little known for her contributions to the establishment of the Woman’s Day celebrations, she remains pertinent in Evanston and national history for her activism throughout her life. Today, women around the world celebrate International Women’s Day, (go to http://www.internationalwomensday.com/ to find out more) thanks to the inspiring work of women like May Wood Simons.

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Mayme Spencer died at the age of 89 in February 2011. Here is a link to her Chicago Tribune obituary — http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/obituaries/ct-met-spencer-obit-20110208,0,4661222.story.

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Kay Davis, ca. 1944 (Couresy of Shorefront)

Katherine McDonald Wimp (better known by her stage name, Kay Davis) (1920 – ) was a classically trained vocalist, receiving her Masters Degree from Northwestern University in 1943.  She joined Duke Ellington’s band in 1944 as one of his trio of female singers and toured with the band throughout the U.S. and Europe in the 1940s before retiring from music in 1950.  She is known for her wordless vocal technique and for singing the debut of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” at Carnegie Hall in 1948.

To learn more about her, see the Wikipedia entry that includes an extensive list of her vocal work for Ellington:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Davis

You can also hear brief clips of Davis singing with the Ellington band at: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fvfwxq85ldhe~T3

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Elizabeth Harbert was connected to the national suffrage movement through her friendship with Susan B. Anthony and wrote numerous articles and published a newsletter in support of voting rights. Frances Willard and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union are credited by historians with convincing large numbers of women to support suffrage in the 19th century. Catharine McCulloch was instrumental in getting Illinois women the right to vote in 1913, making it the first state east of the Mississippi to do so. Some historians believe that this forced East coast states, and the nation in general, to realize the power of women voters.

If you’d like to know more about this moment in women’s history, here are a few web sites to visit:

Library of Congress, Women’s Suffrage Resources

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html

Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership

http://www.rochester.edu/sba/suffragehistory.html

National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (working on connecting all the sites throughout the U.S. that were influential in the suffrage movement, including those in Evanston)

http://www.ncwhs.org/

About.com site on Women’s History

http://specials.about.com/service/newsletters/womenshistory/1282748400.htm

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Frances Willard

Frances Willard wrote many books and countless speeches, newspaper articles, pamphlets, etc during her busy life as a temperance reformer and women’s rights advocate. One of the most interesting is the little book she wrote about her experience late in life of taking up the new hobby of bicycle riding. In honor of the start of summer, here is an excerpt from her book How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle (originally published in 1895 as A Wheel Within A Wheel). Some say this little book was the first sports book written by a woman. It is the only book by Willard you can still purchase new today.

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Evanston resident Ruth Anderson in her WLA uniform

The Women’s Land Army of America was formed during WWI to give women a way to help and farmers the workers they needed. Organized on a local, state and national level, it was self-funded as the women were paid by the farmers they worked for. The Land Army explicitly tried to mix the educational and social backgrounds of its workers so that they might experience the same leveling and bonding that the soldiers did.

Since members of the Women’s Land Army did heavy farm work, the uniform needed to be made of easily laundered materials, which would not show dirt.  The short skirt allowed for freedom of movement, while the ankles and lower legs would be covered by sturdy lace up boots with thick stacked heels.

Evanston resident Ruth (Anderson) Erikson was in high school when she volunteered her service. She lived the remainder of her life in Evanston and was an active member of many organizations including the Woman’s Club of Evanston, the Women’s Republican Club and the Evanston League of Women Voters.

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Elizabeth Boynton Harbert

As early as 1876, Evanston was home to the Pro and Con Club, organized by Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (1843-1925), author and suffrage activist, for the purpose of discussing women’s suffrage. Harbert had participated in the founding of the American Woman’s Suffrage Association and was a close associate of Susan B. Anthony. She wrote the “Woman’s Kingdom” column for the Inter Ocean, a leading Chicago newspaper, and later had her own monthly newsletter, “The New Era,” where she expressed her expansive views on women’s rights.

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The New Era, a pro-suffrage newsletter edited by Harbert

From Evanston’s earliest years, women were active locally and nationally in advocating for women’s suffrage. As early as 1876, Evanston was home to the Pro and Con Club, organized by Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, author and suffrage activist, for the purpose of discussing women’s suffrage. Harbert had participated in the founding of the American Woman’s Suffrage Association and was a close associate of Susan B. Anthony.

World renowned social reformer Frances E. Willard was an active suffrage supporter throughout her life. When she became the second president of the WCTU in 1879, she gradually convinced its members that women’s suffrage was an important way to advance the organization’s temperance reform. The WCTU was the largest organization of women in the U.S. in the 19th century and as such its support of suffrage was key to advancing the movement during that time.

Most prominent among 20th-century suffragists was Catharine Waugh McCulloch. McCulloch began her legal career in 1886 and was the first woman in the U.S. to serve as a Justice of the Peace. She was legal advisor to the National WCTU and the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. When the campaign for Illinois suffrage ended successfully in 1913 (largely through McCulloch’s tireless efforts), there was a torchlight parade of happy supporters to greet her when she arrived home in Evanston.

The Evanston Political Equality League (EPEL) was founded in 1903 with Avis Grant as president and both Elizabeth Harbert and Catharine McCulloch as founding members. The EPEL was the Evanston affiliate of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association and organized local support for suffrage through collecting dues for the IESA and distributing information to Evanstonians about the cause through pamphlets and lectures.  Like many local suffrage organizations in the U.S., after the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 the EPEL became the Evanston League of Women Voters. The League was officially founded in February of 1922.

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