Frances Noel Papers, ca. 1900-1960

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Summary

Creators:
Noel, Frances
Abstract:
Frances Noel was born in Saxony, near the Bohemian border in 1873. She left home to travel the world in 1893 but finally settled in Los Angeles after marrying Primrose D. Noel in 1904. She played a very active role in the labor and women's movements in Los Angeles, California. The collection consists of correspondence, organizational materials, papers, pamphlets, clippings, and printed material reflecting her participation in causes for organized labor, birth control, women's suffrage, and environmental conservation. Significant correspondents include Alice Stone Blackwell, Carrie Chapman Catt, Samuel Gompers, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Katherine Philips Edson, John Francis Neylan, and Margaret Sanger.
Extent:
11 boxes (5.5 linear ft.) 1 oversize box
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of correspondence, organizational materials, papers, pamphlets, clippings, and printed material relating to Frances Noel's interest in the labor and women's movements in Los Angeles, California. Materials reflect her participation in causes for organized labor, birth control, women's suffrage, and environmental conservation. Collection arranged by subject and organizations, with correspondence separated and arranged chronologically. Significant correspondents include Alice Stone Blackwell, Carrie Chapman Catt, Samuel Gompers, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Katherine Philips Edson, John Francis Neylan, and Margaret Sanger.

Expanded Scope and Content

The papers and other printed material comprising the Frances Noel Collection, ca. 1910-1960, 11 boxes, pertain almost entirely to the many organizations in which she participated or with which she dealt in the multifaceted cause for organized labor in Los Angeles in the first half of the century. A vital interaction with the Women's Movement up to the 1930s is also represented by important materials pertaining to suffrage and birth control organizations. Mrs. Noel's interests also extended to human and environmental welfare, illustrated by the materials on social insurance in the 1920s and conservation activities later in her life. Many newspaper clippings depict the people and events of the times, particularly those of her husband's (Primrose D. Noel) labor press columns. And in addition, a particularly rich resource occurs in her correspondence which includes a few letters exchanged with other notable women such as Margaret Sanger, Katherine Phillips Edson and Mother Jones. Of particular interest is an interview taped with Mrs. Noel in 1952, also available in the Department of Special Collections, UCLA. (Collection 100, box 98)

Biographical / historical:

Frances Noel was born in Saxony, near the Bohemian border, 1873; left home to travel the world, 1893; married Primrose D. Noel and settled in Los Angeles, 1904; vice president, Women's Union Label League, California, 1910, and president, 1914; president, Wage Earner's Suffrage League, 1911; struggled to establish recreational camp for working women, Camp Aliso, 1918; chaired the Conference of Union Women of Southern California, 1921; established Women's Annex, Los Angeles Labor Union Temple, 1922; president, Los Angeles Chapter of the American Birth Control League, 1926; appointed to Executive Board of the Central Labor Council in California, fighting for minimum wage laws and eight hour working days; fought to preserve the Arroyo Seco area in Pasadena, California, 1920s; fought for public transportation improvements; date and circumstances of death unknown.

Biographical Narrative

At an early age, Frances Noel expressed the independent nature and pioneering spirit which were to characterize her struggles and lead to her achievements for the causes of labor and women's rights. Born in Saxony, near the Bohemian border in 1873, she left home at age 20 to see the world. Working variously as a governess, kindergarten teacher and waitress, she travelled to New York, Chicago and Denver where the early fight for woman suffrage in Colorado left a strong impression upon her. Travels also took her to California where, deeply interested in the principles of socialism, she attended meetings of the Socialist Party in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the late 1890s. During several subsequent trips back to the eastern United States and Europe, she continued to make important contacts with other socialist groups and leaders.

In 1904 she returned to Los Angeles to marry Primrose (Primm) D. Noel who became a noted columnist for labor news publications and an active member of the American Civil Liberties Union until his death in 1943. At one point, Primrose D. Noel's career was associated with banking, and was abruptly interrupted due to his wife's socialist activities. He was fired and became an insurance broker, a business taken over by Frances after his death.

As a result of her own office workers union membership and a large and growing concern for the interests of working people, Frances Noel became vice president of the Women's Union Label League in California in 1910, and was in 1914, president of the Women's Trade Union League in Los Angeles. As a proponent of the rights of women workers, she joined the Woman Suffrage Movement and became president of the Wage Earner's Suffrage League in 1911. And as a proponent of their welfare in the fullest sense of the word, she struggled to establish a recreational camp for working women, Camp Aliso, in the San Dimas Canyon, California in 1918.

Eventually, counterproductive political conflicts, which were brewing in the Social Party over alliances with labor, led to Frances Noel's separation from the Socialist Movement. However, in spite of this, and other kinds of factional disputes within the Women's Movement, her career continued to reflect a commitment to the well-being of all working people. She was instrumental in promoting numerous meetings and organizations, effectively unifying people in common cause. Notably, she organized and chaired the Conference of Union Women of Southern California in 1921, and was largely responsible for establishing the Women's Annex to the Los Angeles Labor Union Temple in 1922.

By contributing to the Women's City Club of Los Angeles, she developed the alliance of many women's groups in addition to those which were labor-oriented, and her involvement with the Birth Control Movement was vital. In 1926, she was president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Birth Control League which also administered the health-oriented Mother's Clinic.

Frances Noel's impact as a social reformer was not limited by the concerns of women alone. Expressions of confidence in her were made on the part of many men as she was appointed to a number of forceful organizations, such as the Executive Board of the Central Labor Council in California. There, she was active in legislative concerns, and contributed to creation of the Humane Legislation League in 1911 which fought for minimum wage law and eight hour working days. In varying capacities, she participated in the Los Angeles Industrial Commission, and in 1916 became an active member of California's Social Insurance Commission, concerned with health, unemployment, maternal and retirement plans.

Mrs. Noel's dedication to principles of human welfare was localized within her community as well as expanded to the natural environment. She was a member of the City Council in Los Angeles in 1913 and a committee member associated with the City Planning Commission. Her work to preserve the Arroyo Seco area near her home in Pasadena, California, in the 1920s, was highly commended. She pursued issues pertaining to public ownership of utilities in the Municipal Light and Power Defense League, and became an ardent conservationist in her later years, belonging to such organizations as the Sierra Club and the Save the Redwoods League.

Frances Noel's dedication to public welfare continued to the last years of her life. It was well past her eighieth year when she was organizing her community in Highland Park, California to fight for safer access to public transportation. And, indeed, the Marmion Way bus stop was improved in 1957. The date and circumstances of her death are unknown at this time. It is fitting, though, that the last dated items of correspondence in the Frances Noel Collection pertain to the activities of organizations which are now taken for granted as foundations for the rights of working women.

[Compiled from papers of the Frances Noel Collection (814) and her recollections taped in an interview, 1952 (Collection 100 box 98)]

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. The women's movement (Boxes 1-2).
  2. Labor organizations, conferences, and concerns (Boxes 3-5).
  3. Labor, women, political concerns, Primrose D. Noel and the Labor Press (Boxes 6-8).
  4. Municipal, environmental, and miscellaneous concerns (Box 9).
  5. Correspondence and personal ephemera (Boxes 10-11).
  6. Southern California Labor Press (Box 12).
  7. Los Angeles Times disaster of 1910 (Box 12).

Arrangement

To accurately reflect the goals and development of her many activities, the Frances Noel Collection is arranged primarily according to organizational bodies at the series level. The sequence of organizations reflects a very general chronology, or progressively related issues where the time frame has been obscured by overlapping activites in her life. Groups of administratively related organizations are arranged first by general materials or the national level of organization, progressing to local concerns, followed by specific issues or people, then to miscellaneous materials on the topic.

Within a given folder, papers have been arranged chronologically wherever practicable, as in the case of minutes or proceedings. Clippings are usually placed in separate folders to promote conservation and, in some instances, they are subdivided by personal or organizational subject matter.

The incoming and outgoing correspondence has been separated and arranged chronologically. Dates have been ascertained for originally undated items and marked in pencil. When specific dates were not determined, items are placed at the beginning of the applicable year or month. Mrs. Noel's correspondence reflects her pervasive involvement with labor and women's groups, therefore it is necessary to consult her letters for material relevant to the organizations represented elsewhere in the collection. This is particularly true in the case of her outgoing correspondence which has not been analyzed in the index.

Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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