Ida Husted Harper Papers: Finding Aid mssHM 10497-10731
Melissa Haley
The Huntington Library
September 2022
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Business Number: (626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Ida Husted Harper papers
Creator:
Harper, Ida Husted, 1851-1931
Identifier/Call Number: mssHM 10497-10731
Physical Description:
5 Linear Feet
(4 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1841-1919
Abstract: Collection consists primarily of letters gathered by Ida Husted Harper relating to the women's suffrage movement in the late
19th and early 20th centuries, many of which are to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; also present are letters
to Harper.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
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[Identification of item]. Ida Husted Harper papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Thomas F. Madigan, 1926.
Ida Husted Harper (1851-1931), a journalist, writer, and suffragist, was born in Fairfield, Indiana. In 1871, she married
Thomas Winans Harper, who she divorced in 1890. Harper began her journalism career in Indiana, writing for the Terre Haute
Saturday Evening Mail, including a column on women's issues. She met the suffragist Susan B. Anthony in 1878 and was elected
secretary of the Indiana chapter of National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1887. In 1890, Harper served briefly as
the managing editor of the Terre Haute Daily News; she also wrote columns and articles for the Indianapolis News and the Locomotive
Firemen's Magazine, a labor publication. In the 1890s, Harper moved to California, enrolled at Stanford University, and became
more active in the cause of women's suffrage and in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), which formed
in 1890. In 1897, she was hired by Susan B. Anthony to write her biography, which was published in three volumes in 1898 and
1908. Harper also assisted Anthony with the fourth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage (1902) and edited the fifth and
sixth volumes of the series (1922). In 1899, she began traveling regularly to Europe to attend meetings of the International
Council on Women and the International Suffrage Alliance. Harper also wrote women's columns for the New York Sunday Sun and
Harper's Bazaar and contributed to numerous other publications. In 1910, she began serving as chair of NAWSA's National Press
Bureau. She was named head of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education in Washington, D.C. in 1916 and was later involved with
the American Association of University Women. Ida Husted Harper died in New York City at age 80.
The collection consists primarily of letters gathered by Ida Husted Harper relating to the women's suffrage movement in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these letters are to suffragists Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton; senders
include Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, Samuel May, Sallie Holley, Francis Jackson, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Tilton,
Wendell Phillips, George F. Train, Mary Livermore, Victoria Woodhull, Clara Barton, Mary Booth, Wendell Phillips Garrison,
Fanny Villard, Felix Adler, Julia Ward Howe, Annie Besant, Angelina Grimke Weld, Frances E. Willard, Kate Field, Jane Stanford,
and Robert Dale Owen, among others. Other correspondents in the collection include Theodore Parker, Gerrit Smith, William
T. Stead, Abigail Mott, and Lydia Mott. There is one letter from Susan B. Anthony to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1872 November
5 (HM 10549). In addition, there are a number of letters in the collection to Ida Husted Harper, most of them regarding her
biography of Susan B. Anthony and the suffrage movement. Harper's correspondents include Eugene V. Debs, Frances E. Willard,
Carrie Chapman Catt, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore, Amalia Condert, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida Tarbell, Elizabeth Meriwether
Gilmer (aka "Dorothy Dix"), Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Alva E. Belmont, and Anna Howard Shaw.
Materials created by US presidents in this collection include James A. Garfield autograph letter signed to Sara Andrews Spencer,
1880 January 19 (HM 10571); William McKinley typescript letter signed to Ida Husted Harper, 1898 February 27 (HM 10649); William
H. Taft typescript letter signed to Ida Husted Harper, 1904 February 11 (HM 10704). The collection contains eight letters
from Theodore Roosevelt to:
- Susan B. Anthony, 1898 December 12 (HM 10654) typescript letter signed with autograph corrections
- Ida Husted Harper, 1918 February 7 (HM 10723) typescript letter signed with autograph corrections
- Ida Husted Harper, 1918 May 22 (HM 10724) typescript letter signed with secretarial signature
- Ida Husted Harper, 1918 June 1 (HM 10725) typescript letter signed
- Ida Husted Harper, 1918 September 16 (HM 10727) typescript letter signed with autograph corrections, postscript; includes transcription of typescript
- Ida Husted Harper, 1918 October 31 (HM 10729) typescript letter signed
- Ida Husted Harper, 1919 January 3 (HM 10731) typescript letter signed; enclosure is TR letter to George H. Moses on same date; includes Harper note regarding letter
- George H. Moses, 1919 January 3 (HM 10570) typescript copy; enclosure of letter to Harper on same date
This finding aid was created in 2022 by Melissa Haley as part of the American Presidential Papers Project with enhanced description
of the presidential material present. The items had been assembled physically and arranged by Huntington Library former staff
in the mid-20th century.
Ida Husted Harper,
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Indianapolis, Kansas City: Bowen-Merrill, Hollenbeck, 1898-1908).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper, eds.
History of Woman Suffrage (New York: Fowler & Wells, 1881-1922).
The Huntington Library holds several other publications by or related to Harper, see library catalogs for details.
Collection is arranged chronologically.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Feminists -- United States -- Archives
Suffragists -- United States -- Archives
Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
Women's rights -- United States -- History -- Sources
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1838-1909
McKinley, William, 1843-1901
Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902
Stone, Lucy, 1818-1893
Willard, Frances E. (Frances Elizabeth), 1839-1898
Box 1
1841-1880
Box 2
1881-1893
Box 3
1894-1901
Box 4
1902-1919