Ida A. Husted Harper
Ida A. Husted Harper was a significant figure in the American suffrage movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, she initially gained prominence through her writing, contributing columns to local newspapers and union publications. In 1887, she became actively involved in the suffrage movement by helping to organize a women's suffrage society in Indiana, where she served as secretary. After a brief period at Stanford University, Harper dedicated herself to the suffrage cause and became closely associated with notable leaders like Susan B. Anthony, for whom she served as biographer.
Harper authored a comprehensive three-volume biography of Anthony, which not only detailed her life but also chronicled the development of the suffrage movement. She played a vital role in disseminating information about women's rights through her work with various newspapers and as the head of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education in Washington, D.C. Harper’s efforts were instrumental in advocating for the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the United States. Throughout her life, she maintained a focus on women's rights both domestically and internationally. She passed away in Washington, D.C., in March 1931, leaving behind a legacy as a historian and activist in the fight for women's suffrage.
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Ida A. Husted Harper
American biographer and journalist
- Born: February 18, 1851
- Birthplace: Fairfield, Indiana
- Died: March 14, 1931
- Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Biography
Ida A. Husted Harper was a prominent woman in the American suffrage movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born Ida A. Husted, she lived the early part of her life in Terre Haute, Indiana, where she married Thomas Harper, a lawyer, in 1871. Her husband was a politician as well as an attorney and was an associate of Eugene V. Debs, the American labor movement leader. With this background and connections in Terre Haute, she wrote for local newspapers.
For twelve years, Harper wrote a column for the Terre Haute Saturday Evening Mail. Her ideas in “A Woman’s Column” had a mixed reception. For the following nine years, from 1884 to 1893, she wrote a column for women for the Fireman’s Magazine, a union publication known later as the Locomotive Fireman’s Magazine.
Harper’s first experiences in politics occurred in 1887 when she helped organize an Indiana State women’s suffrage society, concentrating on voting rights for women. With her writing skills, she became the secretary of the organization. She was divorced from Harper in 1890 and continued to work in newspapers. She attended Stanford University briefly, from 1893 to 1895, before devoting herself to the suffrage movement beginning in 1896.
After her experience as head of press relations for the campaign by the National American Woman Suffrage Association for a suffrage amendment in California, Harper’s work came to the attention of national leaders of the movement. As a result of her close working relationship with women’s rights crusader Susan B. Anthony, Anthony asked Harper to become her official biographer. In 1897, Harper left California and moved to Anthony’s home in Rochester, New York. The first two volumes of TheLife and Work of Susan B. Anthony appeared in 1898. The third volume was published in 1908.
This exhaustive work was the result of Harper’s study and organization of more than twenty thousand letters in Anthony’s collection as well as multiple diaries written over a fifty-year period. These works were used by Harper for the personal story of Anthony but also the story of the development of the American suffrage movement. In her preface to volume I, Harper says her intent was to trace a life and “a condition.”
In addition to her writing, Harper continued her activism in the suffrage movement. She served as chairperson of the press committee of the International Council of Women from 1899 to 1902 and also as a delegate to the conventions of this organization in London, in 1899, and Berlin, in 1904. Her journalism skills continued to be of value to the organizers of the national campaign for women’s rights. She edited women’s columns in major newspapers such as the New York Sunday Sun (1899-1902) and national magazines like Harper’s Bazaar (1909-1913). The wide circulation of these publications helped bring the issues of the suffrage movement to a larger audience. Harper is also credited with contributions published in major newspapers in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
Harper turned to a national stage when she was asked to head the new Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, a division of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Washington, D.C. Because one of the major objectives of the women’s suffrage movement was the spread of information, Harper’s role was crucial in producing a steady flow of publications about issues and events. She produced articles, letters, and pamphlets which helped bring these issues to the attention of many citizens and legislators. Her efforts helped secure successful passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote in the United States.
Harper was also interested in women’s rights in other countries. She included comparative analyses of suffrage abroad in her biography of Anthony. However, her primary interest remained the situation for women in the United States. Her later publications of volumes five and six of the History of Woman Suffrage updated the perspective of women’s rights through 1920. Revered as a historian and official reporter for the women’s suffrage movement, Ida Husted Harper died in Washington, D.C., in March, 1931.
Bibliography
Maule, Frances. Woman Suffrage: History, Arguments, and Results. New York: National Women’s Suffrage, 1915. Collection of pamphlets covering suffrage claims and evidence.
Starr, Harris Elwood. “Ida Husted Harper.” In Dictionary of American Biography. New York: American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Biographical essay on Harper emphasizing her career in journalism.