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.
This is my great-great-grandmother. Always learning more about her. Thank you for posting this.
And this post is just the beginning of what we know about Elizabeth Harbert. Check our research database for more info and if you are ever in Evanston, let us know. Thanks for your comment!
I’ll be discussing Elizabeth Boynton Harbert’s scrapbooks in two talks I’m giving at Northwestern next week:
One is
Nov. 13 at 4pm at University Library’s Forum Room (“Reading the Remnants: American Scrapbook History”)http://sites.library.northwestern.edu/scrapbooks/event/ and then Nov 14 at a lunchtime seminar for Rhetoric and Public Culture, at 12:30 in Kresge (“Strategic Scrapbooks: Nineteenth Century Activists Remake the Newspaper for African American History and Women’s Rights”). Both talks are free and open to the public.
Thanks for sharing!