Alice Bunker Stockham

Alice Bunker Stockham
Doctor, author, publisher, and sexual reformer Alice Bunker Stockham led the way in many important causes of her day. Stockham came to Evanston in 1890. As a doctor who specialized in pediatrics, Stockham came to realize that her work was very connected to family planning. As such, she published and publicized these materials through a variety of means, including using the US postal service to send out these pamphlets. In 1905, at the heyday of the Comstock reform measures, and at the age of 72, she was charged with sending sexually explicit material through the mail. Clarence Darrow, the famed attorney, represented her but she was found guilty. She was fined and her books banned. Defeated and exhausted, she moved to California to live out the rest of her days in peace and quiet. Eventually, Evanston renamed Stockham Place, Burnham Place.