Ida Husted Harper (February 18, 1851 – March 14, 1931) was a prominent figure in the United States women's suffrage movement. She was an American author and journalist who wrote primarily to document the movement and show support of its ideals.
Ida was born in Fairfield, Franklin County, Indiana to John Arthur Husted and Cassandra Stoddard. By 1870, she was a school teacher in Peru, Indiana. Later, she became a principal of a high school in Peru, Indiana and on December 28, 1871, she married Thomas Winans Harper of Terre Haute, Indiana, who went on to become a successful attorney and politician and whom she would later divorce.
She began writing woman's columns, first in a Terre Haute newspaper under the pseudonym "John Smith" and later in a union magazine edited by activist Eugene V. Debs of Terre Haute. Through this period, she increasingly became more interested in the campaign for women's suffrage.
In 1887, she helped to organize a woman suffrage society in Indiana, serving as its secretary and in 1896 joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association where she worked as a reporter and, ultimately, an historian of the movement. She brought Susan B. Anthony to Terre Haute for a suffrage convention and became close to her during this period, soon collaborating with her on writing the "History of Woman Suffrage."
She later wrote an authorized and substantial biography of Anthony based on her their relationship and Anthony's own archives. The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony was published in 3 volumes between 1898 and 1908. Seeking to cement her place in history as Anthony's sole biographer, she spent weeks burning priceless letters and historic documents after Harper set her main biographical text in place.
Ida Harper fulfilled a similar role in press relations for the International Council of Women and later headed the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, which strove to improve public understanding of the movement. The bureau produced articles and pamphlets about the campaign and also communicated directly with editors, praising, chastising, or correcting them regarding their editorial perspectives and policies on women.
In 1920, her efforts contributed to the success of the movement as women were guaranteed the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment. In 1922, she updated the History of Woman Suffrage, adding fifth and sixth volumes. She died in Washington, D. C. in 1931.
Her daughter, Winnifred Harper Cooley, became an author and lecturer.
Read more about Ida Husted Harper: Principal Literary Work
Famous quotes by ida husted harper:
“Before any woman is a wife, a sister or a mother she is a human being. We ask nothing as women but everything as human beings.”
—Ida C. Hultin, U.S. minister and suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 17, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
—Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“... in every State there are more women who can read and write than the whole number of illiterate male voters; more white women who can read and write than all Negro voters; more American women who can read and write than all foreign voters.”
—National Woman Suffrage Association. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)