Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe | |
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Born | Julia Ward May 27, 1819 New York City, U.S. |
Died | October 17, 1910 Portsmouth, Rhode Island, U.S. | (aged 91)
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Children |
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Julia Ward Howe (/haʊ/;[1] May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 pacifist Mother's Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism and a social activist, particularly for women's suffrage.
Early life and education
Julia Ward was born in New York City on May 27, 1819. She was the fourth of seven children. Her father
Howe was educated by private tutors and schools for young ladies until she was sixteen. Her eldest brother,
Her brother,
Personal life
Though raised an Episcopalian, Julia became a Unitarian by 1841.[7] In Boston, Ward met Samuel Gridley Howe, a physician and reformer who had founded the Perkins School for the Blind.[2][8] Howe had courted her, but he had shown an interest in her sister Louisa.[9] In 1843, they married despite their eighteen-year age difference.[2] She gave birth to their first child while honeymooning in Europe. She bore their last child in December 1859 at the age of forty. They had six children: Julia Romana Howe (1844–1886), Florence Marion Howe (1845–1922), Henry Marion Howe (1848–1922), Laura Elizabeth Howe (1850–1943), Maud Howe (1855–1948), and Samuel Gridley Howe Jr. (1859–1863). Howe was an aunt of novelist Francis Marion Crawford. Ward’s marriage to Howe was troublesome for her. He did not approve of her writing and did everything he could to disrupt her creative efforts.[10]
Howe raised her children in South Boston, while her husband pursued his advocacy work. She hid her unhappiness with their marriage, earning the nickname "the family champagne" from her children.[11] She made frequent visits to Gardiner, Maine, where she stayed at "The Yellow House," a home built originally in 1814 and later home to her daughter Laura.[12]
Howe was a vegetarian in the late 1830s but was eating meat again by 1843.[13][14] In 1852, the Howes bought a "country home" with 4.7 acres of land in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, which they called "Oak Glen."[15] They continued to maintain homes in Boston and Newport, but spent several months each year at Oak Glen.[15]
Career
Writing
She attended lectures, studied foreign languages, and wrote plays and dramas. Prior to her marriage, Howe had published essays on
Unpublished during her lifetime but certainly part of her twenty-first century legacy is a fragmentary novel, The Hermaphrodite, assembled from manuscript fragments in Harvard's Houghton Library by Gary Williams and published in 2004 by the University of Nebraska Press.
She went on trips including several for missions. In 1860, she published A Trip to Cuba, which told of her 1859 trip. It had generated outrage from
Howe's being a published author troubled her husband greatly, especially due to the fact that her poems many times had to do with critiques of women's roles as wives, her own marriage, and women's place in society.[18][19] Their marriage problems escalated to the point where they separated in 1852. Samuel, when he became her husband, had also taken complete control of her estate income. Upon her husband's death in 1876, she found that through a series of bad investments, most of her money had been lost.[4]
Howe's writing and social activism were greatly shaped by her upbringing and married life. Much study has gone into her difficult marriage and how it influenced her work, both written and active.[20]
Politics
In the early 1870s, Howe was nominated by Massachusetts governor
Social activism
She was inspired to write "
Howe produced eleven issues of the literary magazine, Northern Lights, in 1867. That same year she wrote about her travels to Europe in From the Oak to the Olive. After the war, she focused her activities on the causes of
In 1872, she became the editor of
In 1881, Howe was elected president of the Association for the Advancement of Women. Around the same time, Howe went on a speaking tour of the Pacific coast and founded the Century Club of San Francisco. In 1890, she helped found the General Federation of Women's Clubs, to reaffirm the Christian values of frugality and moderation.[2] From 1891 to 1893, she served as president for the second time of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Until her death, she was president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association. From 1893 to 1898 she directed the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and headed the Massachusetts Federation of Women's Clubs.[2] Howe spoke at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago reflecting on the question, What is Religion?.[32] In 1908 Julia was the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a society; its goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art.[33]
Death and legacy
Howe died of pneumonia on October 17, 1910, at her Portsmouth home, Oak Glen at the age of 91.[34] She is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[35] At her memorial service approximately 4,000 people sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a sign of respect as it was the custom to sing that song at each of Julia's speaking engagements.[36]
After her death, her children collaborated on a biography,[37] published in 1916. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.[38]
In 1987, she was honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a 14¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.[39]
Several buildings are associated with her name:
- The Julia Ward Howe School of Excellence in Chicago's Austin community is named in her honor.[40]
- The Howe neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was named for her.[41]
- The Julia Ward Howe Academics Plus Elementary School in Philadelphia was named in her honor in 1913.[42]
- Her Rhode Island home, Oak Glen, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[43]
- Her Boston home is a stop on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.[44]
- Julia Ward Howe Elementary School, located in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania. [45]
Awards and honors
- January 28, 1908, at age 88, Howe became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
- 1970, inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[46]
- In 1998, inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[47]
Selected works
Poetry
- Passion-Flowers (1854)
- Words for the Hour (1857)
- From Sunset Ridge: Poems Old and New (1898)[25]
- Later Lyrics (1866)
- At Sunset (published posthumously, 1910)[25]
Other works
- The Hermaphrodite. Incomplete, but probably composed between 1846 and 1847. Published by University of Nebraska Press, 2004
- From the Oak to the Olive (travel writing, 1868)[48]
- Modern Society (essays, 1881)[25]
- Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli) (biography, 1883)[25]
- Woman's work in America (1891)
- Is Polite Society Polite? (essays, 1895)[25]
- Reminiscences: 1819–1899[49] (autobiography, 1899)[25]
See also
- List of peace activists
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- List of women's rights activists
- Timeline of women's suffrage
- Ann Jarvis
- Gardiner, Maine, Howe's home for many years
- Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House
References
- ^ "Julia Ward Howe". Oxford Learner's Dictionaries.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Sandra F. VanBurkleo, Mary Jo Miles (2000). "Howe, Julia Ward". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 5, 2013. (subscription required)
- ^ "Howe, Julia Ward (1819–1910)", Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Credo Reference. November 7, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Julia Ward Howe Biography". Retrieved January 21, 2014.
- ^ Richards, Laura (1915). Celebration of Women Writers. Houghton Mifflin Company.
- ^ Joann, Goodman. "Julia Ward Howe". Archived from the original on December 31, 2013.
- ^ Biography Archived April 17, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography
- ^ "Julia Ward Howe". National Women's History Museum.
- ISBN 1-55849-157-0
- OCLC 952647568.
- ^ Martyris, Nina (March 16, 2016). "Battle Hymn at the Dining Table: A Famous Feminist Subjugated Through Food". NPR. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
- ^ "Gardiner Public Library, Gardiner, Maine".
- ISBN 978-1451645910
- ^ "Julia Ward Howe: 1819-1910". digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ a b "Julia Ward Howe, Author of Battle Hymn, Spent Much of Her Life in Portsmouth". Zilian Commentary. March 24, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ISBN 1-55849-157-0
- ^ "JULIA WARD HOWE (1819–1910)." Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 14 November 2013.
- ^ "Julia Ward Howe – National Women's Hall of Fame". National Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
- ^ "Open Collections Program: Women Working, Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910)". Women Working, 1800 – 1930. Harvard University Library. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
- ^ Lepore, Jill (February 29, 2016). "'The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe,' by Elaine Showalter". The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
- ^ SSRN 3896499.
- ISBN 1-55849-157-0
- ^ a b VanBurleo, Miles
- ISBN 0252067037.
- ^ ISBN 1-56338-418-3
- ^ Ryan, Agnes E. The Torch Bearer A Look Forward and Back at the Woman's Journal, the Organ of the Woman's Movement.
- ^ Howe, Julia Ward (September 1870). Appeal to womanhood throughout the world.
- ^ ISBN 0-691-01721-2. citing Deborah Pickman Clifford, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Biography of Julia Ward Howe (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 187, 207, and Julia Ward Howe, "How the Fourth of July Should Be Celebrated", Forum 15 (July 1983); 574
- ^ The History of Mothers' Day from The Legacy Project, a Legacy Center (Canada) website
- ISBN 1-57607-232-0.
- ^ The First Anniversary of "Mothers' Day", The New York Times, June 3, 1874, p. 8: "'Mothers' Day', which was inaugurated in this city on the 2nd of June, 1872, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howards [sic], was celebrated last night at Plimpton Hall by a mothers' peace meeting..."
- ^ Barrows, John Henry, The World’s Parliament of Religions: An Illustrated and Popular Story of the World’s First Parliament of Religions, Held in Chicago in connection with the Columbian Exposition of 1893, Volume 2. Chicago: The Parliament Publishing Company, 1893, 1250-1251.
- ^ "Julia Ward Howe Elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters". America's Story. Library of Congress. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
- ISBN 0-19-503186-5
- ISBN 0-571-19816-3
- ^ Howe, Julia Ward (1819–1910)." Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Credo Reference. Web. 7 November 2013.
- ^ Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe; Elliott, Maud Howe; Hall, Florence Howe (January 1, 1915). "Julia Ward Howe, 1819–1910". Houghton Mifflin – via Google Books.
- ISBN 1-56338-418-3
- ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
- ^ "About". Howe School of Excellence. Academy for Urban School Leadership. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
- ^ "Howe". City of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- ^ Moak, J.M. (May 1987). "Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form: Julia Ward Howe School" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2012.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Oak Glen" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
- ^ "Back Bay East". Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
- ^ "Home - Howe Elementary School". howe.mtlsd.org. April 22, 2024. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ^ "Julia Ward Howe". Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- ^ National Women's Hall of Fame, Julia Ward Howe
- ^ Julia Ward Howe (1868). From the oak to the olive: a plain record of a pleasant journey. Lee & Shepard.
- ^ Howe, Julia Ward (January 1, 1900). Reminiscences: 1819–1899. Houghton Mifflin Company – via Internet Archive.
Further reading
- Clifford, Deborah Pickman. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Biography of Julia Ward Howe. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1978. OCLC 812767088.
- Sketches of Representative Women of New England. Boston: New England Historical Pub. Co., 1904. OCLC 46723804.
- Richards, Laura Elizabeth. Julia Ward Howe, 1819–1910. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916. Two vol. OCLC 137282181.
- Showalter, Elaine. The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017. OCLC 1001959955.
- Williams, Gary. Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999
- Williams, Gary, ed. The Hermaphrodite. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
- Williams, Gary, and Renee Bergland, eds. Philosophies of Sex: Critical Essays on The Hermaphrodite. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2012.
External links
Works and papers
- Works by Julia Ward Howe at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Julia Ward Howe at Internet Archive
- Works by Julia Ward Howe at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Howe Papers at Harvard University
- Articles by Howe Archive at "Making of America" project, Cornell University Library
- Poetry at Representative Poetry Online (University of Toronto)
- Mothers' Day Proclamation (1870)
- Julia Ward Howe.org Electronic archive of Howe's life and works
- Finding Aid for the Julia Ward Howe Papers at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- Free scores by Julia Ward Howe in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Papers,1857–1961. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
- Papers of the Julia Ward Howe family, 1787–1984. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Biographies
- Julia Ward Howe, biography by Laura E. Richards, online at the University of Pennsylvania
- Michals, Debra. "Julia Ward Howe". National Women's History Museum." 2015.
- Biography Archived April 17, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography
- Julia Ward Howe at Answers.com
- Showalter, Elaine. "The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe" New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017
- Plaque on the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. Archived February 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine marking where Howe wrote the Hymn
Other