Papers of Blanche Ames in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1913-1940
Overview
Correspondence, printed items, photographs, etc., of Blanche Ames, artist and suffragist. These papers are part of the Woman's Rights Collection.
Dates
- Creation: 1913-1940
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. ORIGINALS CLOSED. USE MICROFILM. REQUEST AS: M-133, reel D1.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Blanche Ames as well as 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
4 folders2 Volumes
This series consists of correspondence, printed items, and memorabilia concerning suffrage, including a copy of a speech by Senator John F. Shafroth, and photographs of a 1914 suffrage parade; there is also a photograph of Blanche Ames and her husband. The correspondence (1913-1918), primarily concerned with Ames's work as treasurer of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, has been numbered 1-137 by persons unknown; the processor has retained this arrangement. For the most part, the letters are in chronological order. Ames's activities with the Birth Control League and the New England Hospital are documented in the Blanche Ames collection (MC 193) in the Schlesinger Library.
The two oversize volumes (119o and 120o) are scrapbooks of clippings and cartoons about the suffrage campaigns of 1913-1915 in Massachusetts, other states, and Great Britain.
BIOGRAPHY
Blanche (Ames) Ames, artist and suffragist, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1878. She graduated from Smith College in 1899 and attended Smith College Art School. In 1900, she married Oakes Ames, a professor of botany at Harvard University; they had four children.
Ames illustrated several of her husband's books, including Orchidaceae, and published a number of political cartoons promoting suffrage. She was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, College Equal Suffrage League, and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. In addition, Ames served as treasurer of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters, co-founder and president of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts, and president of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Boston.
For additional biographical information, see the Blanche Ames collection (MC 193) at the Schlesinger Library, and the Ames entry in Notable American Women: The Modern Period (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), which includes a list of additional sources.
Physical Location
Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These papers of Blanche (Ames) Ames fill four folders and two oversize volumes of the Woman's Rights Collection, which was given to Radcliffe College in August 1943 and formed the nucleus of the Women's Archives, later the Schlesinger Library. The two scrapbooks were microfilmed in 1984 with funds provided by the Friends of the Schlesinger Library. The remainder of the material was prepared for microfilming in July 1989 by Janet Hayashi, and was microfilmed as part of a Schlesinger Library/University Publications of America project.
Subject
- Park, Maud Wood, 1871-1955 (Person)
- Title
- Ames, Blanche. Papers of Blanche Ames in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1913-1940: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- sch01007
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.