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COLLECTION Identifier: M-133, reel D29; WRC 653-653b

Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1892-1943

Overview

Biographical material, correspondence, photographs, etc., of Mary Hutcheson Page, suffragist. These papers are part of the Woman's Rights Collection.

Dates

  • Creation: 1892-1943

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Originals closed. Use microfilm, M-133, reel D29.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Mary Hutcheson Page 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

3 folders
1 Volumes

This series consists of biographical material, correspondence, photographs, and a scrapbook containing correspondence, photographs, clippings, etc. The papers date mainly from 1901-1918 and document Mary Hutcheson Page's suffrage work, the activities and strategies of suffragists in Massachusetts, and the effect of English suffragists' 1909 tour on the tactics used in Massachusetts. The scrapbook, compiled by Page for her daughters and arranged chronologically, contains significant letters from a variety of notable suffragists active in Massachusetts, nationally, and in England. There is some documentation of suffrage campaigns in Ohio and New York.

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Hutcheson was born in Columbus, Ohio, on March 16, 1860, the daughter of Lucretia (Deshler) and Joseph Hutcheson. When she was nine, the family moved to Europe, where they lived for five years until Joseph Hutcheson, a young banker in ill health, died; she became an orphan when her mother died a few years later. Page then moved to Boston to attend classes in biology and chemistry as a special student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1890, Mary Hutcheson Page married George Hyde Page; they lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, until 1918, and also had a summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire. They had four children: Hutcheson, Anne, Katharine, and Richmond.

In addition to founding a discussion club that became the Brookline Equal Suffrage Association, being president of the Brookline Association, and serving as chairman of the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, Page played a major role in founding the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government. Chair of Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government's Executive Board and later its president, she was known for her fund-raising skills and ability to convince individual women to join the suffrage cause. Page's interest in suffrage extended to the European campaigns; in addition to making several trips there, she corresponded with several English suffragists and entertained Emmeline Pankhurst during her 1909 visit to Massachusetts. In 1912, Page and Gertrude Halladay Leonard helped organize the suffrage campaign in Ohio. Page's daughters were both active suffragists and George Hyde Page wrote suffrage plays, poetry, and a prayer. Page retired from suffrage work in 1918 and the Pages moved to California, where George Hyde Page died in 1923. Mary Hutcheson Page then returned to Massachusetts, where she died in 1940.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These papers of Mary Hutcheson Page fill three folders and one volume 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 material in this series was prepared for microfilming in November 1990 by Kim Brookes. It was microfilmed as part of a Schlesinger Library/University Publications of America project.

Related Material:

This material forms part of the Schlesinger Library's Woman's rights collection, 1853-1958 (WRC).

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939 (MC 955).

Title
Page, Mary H. (Mary Hutcheson), 1860-1940. Papers of Mary Hutcheson Page in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1892-1943: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch01034

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.

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