Esther Everett Lape (October 8, 1881 – May 17, 1981) was a teacher,
journalist, researcher, and publicist. A Women's Suffrage activist, she was a
personal friend of
Eleanor Roosevelt
and longtime companion of
Elizabeth Fisher Read.Partner Elizabeth Fisher Read
Queer Places:
Bryn Mawr College (Seven Sisters), 101 N Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Wellesley College (Seven Sisters), 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave, Swarthmore, PA 19081
Columbia University (Ivy League), 116th St and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Barnard College (Seven Sisters), 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
20 E 11th St, New York, NY 10003, Stati Uniti
447 E 57th St, New York, NY 10022
Stewart B. Mckinney National Wildlife Refuge, 733 Old Clinton Rd, Westbrook, CT 06498, Stati Uniti
Esther Everett Lape (October 8, 1881 – May 17, 1981) was a teacher,
journalist, researcher, and publicist. A Women's Suffrage activist, she was a
personal friend of
Eleanor Roosevelt
and longtime companion of
Elizabeth Fisher Read.
Esther Everett Lape was born on October 8, 1881, in Wilmington, Delaware.[1] She attended public school in Philadelphia, then Bryn Mawr College and Wellesley College.[1][2]
Esther Lape taught English at Swarthmore College, University of Arizona, Columbia University and Barnard College.[1][2]
SShe was an activist of the Women's Trade Union League and one of the founders of the League of Women Voters.[1]
LLape was the director of the American Foundation for Studies in Government of which her partner, Elizabeth Fisher Read, was director of research.[2][3][4][5]
IIn the 1920s and 1930s she led an unsuccessful battle for United States participation in the World Court.[2]
Lape edited a book on expert medical testimony, Medical Research: A Midcentury Survey (1955), sponsored by the American Foundation.[1][3][4][5] In 1923 she collaborated with Read and Gustav Frenssen to Klaus Hinrich Baas: The Story Of A Self-made Man....[6] Together with Read, Lape published the journal City, State and Nation.[1]
Esther Lape lived with Elizabeth Fisher Read, Women's Suffrage activist and Eleanor Roosevelt's lawyer and friend, in Greenwich Village, at 20 East 11th Street, where today a plaque said Eleanor Roosevelt lived here when she was first lady.[5] The building was actually owned by Lape.[7] Roosevelt, who had met Lape through Read in 1920, rented an apartment for a time.[1][3][8] Nearby, at 171 West 12th Street, lived other lesbian couples involved in the Woman's Suffrage movement and of the close-knit circle of friends of Roosevelt: Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook, Molly Dewson and Polly Porter, Grace Hutchins and Anna Rochester.[7] Lape, with her life partner, Read, and other Roosevelt's female friends, was part of Roosevelt's support network of female friends.[3]
20 E 11th St
447 E 57th St
Lape and Read also owned a country house, Salt Meadow, Westport, Connecticut, where Roosevelt was often a guest.[3][5] In 1972, after Read's death, Lape donated Salt Meadow to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The estate is currently the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.[4] Refuge staff are working on a submission for National Register of Historical Places recognition for the former Salt Meadow estate that will recognize the same-sex relationship of Lape and Read.[9]
Esther Everett Lape died on May 17, 1981, in New York City, at 99 years old.[1][2]
My published books:
