Frances Boardman (Squire) Potter, 1867-1914

Dates:

Birth 1867

Death 1914

Biographical notes:

Frances Boardman (Squire) Potter was a writer, educator and lecturer on literary, social, feminist and industrial subjects. She was the daughter of Truman H. and Grace A. Squire, born in Elmira, New York. In 1887, she graduated from Elmira College, one of the first women's colleges in the United States. She married Winfield Scott Potter, a metallurgist, in 1891; they had four children: Agnes Squire, 1892 Mark Louis, 1893; Grace Eleanor, 1895; Truman Squire, 1897.

After the separation from her husband in 1899, Frances Boardman (Squire) Potter became first a school teacher and in 1900 joined the staff of the Literature Department at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She spent a sabbatical at Cambridge University, England (1905-1906), studying early English literature. She was accompanied by her friend Mary Gray Peck and her children.

In 1904, she published the play "Germelshausen" in collaboration with Mary Gray Peck and Carl Schlenker. In 1905, Little, Brown and Co. published her novel The Ballingtons . She also published The Common School Spelling Book .

In 1909, she left Minneapolis and joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association as corresponding secretary in New York.

After leaving NAWSA she joined the Women's Trade Union League and the General Federation of Women's Clubs as a national lecturer. She also became the Chairman of the Department of Literature and Library Extension in the General Federation of Women's Clubs. She joined the Socialist Party in 1910 and was a lecturer on the staff of the University Lecturers' Association. She died on March 25, 1914, after a long illness.

From the guide to the Papers, 1879-1923, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)