Queer Places:
Smith College (Seven Sisters), 9 Elm St, Northampton, MA 01063
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum
Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York, USA
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Mary
Ritter Beard (August 5, 1876 – August 14, 1958) was an American historian,
author, women's
suffrage activist, and women's history archivist who
was also a lifelong advocate of social justice. As a Progressive
Era reformer, Beard was active in both the labor and women's rights
movements. She also authored several books on women's role in history
including On Understanding Women (1931), America Through Women's Eyes (editor,
1933), and Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and
Realities (1946), her major work. In addition, she collaborated with her
husband, historian Charles
Austin Beard, as coauthor of seven textbooks, most notably The Rise of
American Civilization (1927), two volumes, and America in Midpassage: A Study
of the Idea of Civilization (1939) and The American Spirit (1942), the third
and fourth volume of The Rise of American Civilization series. A standalone
book, Basic History of the United States, was their best-selling work.
During the early decades of the twentieth century, Beard actively supported
passage of the Nineteenth
Amendment and was involved with several women's suffrage organizations
that included the Women's
Trade Union League, the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later
renamed the Women's Political Union), the New York City Suffrage Party, and
the Wage-Earners' Suffrage League. She was also a member of the advisory board
of the Congressional
Union for Woman Suffrage (later called the National
Woman's Party. For a time, she edited suffrage publications, The
Woman Voter and The Suffragist.
Beard's interest in women's history led to her work in establishing the World
Center for Women's Archives in 1935 in New
York City. Although the center closed in 1940, largely due to internal
issues and lack of funding, her efforts encouraged several colleges and
universities to begin collecting similar records on women's history. Through
Beard's contacts, the center accumulated project sponsors. In addition,
Carrie
Chapman Catt, Jane Addams,
Harriet Stanton Blatch, and other prominent women
such as Alice Paul, Georgia
O'Keeffe, Fannie
Hurst, and Inez
Haynes Irwin also offered their support. Schwimmer resigned from the
center's board of directors in 1936, but Eleanor
Roosevelt and Frances
Perkins endorsed the WCWA, which was officially launched in New York City
on December 15, 1937. The center initially gained publicity and support for
its efforts to collect materials, preserve records, and generate interest in
women's history. However, as director of the center, Beard dealt with a
multitude of competing interests, a result of long-standing differences within
the women's movement, as well as insufficient funding and disagreements among
its leadership. The Center never lived up to Beard's expectations and she
resigned in 1940. The WCWA closed later that year, largely because of internal
strife and a lack of funding, without fully achieving its goals.[38][47][48]
Beard was a consultant on the early development of women's history archives
at Radcliffe and Smith Colleges,
which eventually led to establishment of the Arthur
and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard
University, and the Sophia
Smith Collection at Smith College.
My published books:
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