Overview
Plays, stories, speeches, etc., of Frances Boardman Squire Potter, writer, educator, and lecturer.
Dates
- Creation: 1879-1923
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Frances Squire Potter is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
2 linear feet ((2 cartons) plus 2 folio folders, 1 folio+ folder, 1 oversize folder, 1 oversize volume, 1 daguerreotype)These addenda consist of speeches, plays, essays, and other writings of Frances Potter, correspondence, clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, and manuscript and printed sheet music, some by Frances Potter. Frances Potter's notebooks for her literature courses at the University of Minnesota, owned by her family in 1981, will probably be given to the University of Minnesota.
BIOGRAPHY
Frances Boardman (Squire) Potter was a writer, educator and lecturer on literary, social, feminist and industrial subjects. She was the daughter of Truman H. and Grace A. Squire, born in Elmira, New York. In 1887, she graduated from Elmira College, one of the first women's colleges in the United States. She married Winfield Scott Potter, a metallurgist, in 1891; they had four children: Agnes Squire, 1892 Mark Louis, 1893; Grace Eleanor, 1895; Truman Squire, 1897.
After the separation from her husband in 1899, Frances Boardman (Squire) Potter became first a school teacher and in 1900 joined the staff of the Literature Department at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She spent a sabbatical at Cambridge University, England (1905-1906), studying early English literature. She was accompanied by her friend Mary Gray Peck and her children.
In 1904, she published the play "Germelshausen" in collaboration with Mary Gray Peck and Carl Schlenker. In 1905, Little, Brown and Co. published her novel The Ballingtons. She also published The Common School Spelling Book.
In 1909, she left Minneapolis and joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association as corresponding secretary in New York.
After leaving National American Woman Suffrage Association she joined the Women's Trade Union League and the General Federation of Women's Clubs as a national lecturer. She also became the Chairman of the Department of Literature and Library Extension in the General Federation of Women's Clubs. She joined the Socialist Party in 1910 and was a lecturer on the staff of the University Lecturers' Association. She died on March 25, 1914, after a long illness.
Physical Location
Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers: 1441, 81-M120
These papers of Frances Squire Potter were given to the Schlesinger Library by her granddaughter, Frances Dickinson Potter, in September 1968 and May 1981.
CONTAINER LIST
- Box 1: 1-17
- Box 2: 18-33v
Processing Information
Preliminary inventory: September 1981
By: Rina Auerbach
Genre / Form
Topical
Subject
- National Women's Trade Union League of America (Organization)
- Robins, Margaret Dreier (Person)
- Title
- Potter, Frances Squire, 1867-1914. Papers of Frances Squire Potter, 1879-1923: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- sch00859
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.