Evans, Elizabeth Glendower, 1856-1937

Variant names
Dates:
Birth 1856
Death 1937

Biographical notes:

Social reformer Elizabeth Glendower Evans was involved in prison reform, support of striking workers, the Massachusetts campaign for the first minimum wage act for women, the movement for women's suffrage, and peace. She was a contributing editor and financial supporter of La Follette's Magazine and the Progressive, and national director of the American Civil Liberties Union (1920-1937).

From the description of Papers, 1859-1944 (inclusive), 1882-1944 (bulk). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232006675

Elizabeth Glendower Evans (February 28, 1856 - December 12, 1937), was born Elizabeth Gardiner in New Rochelle, New York, the fourth of five children of Edward and Sophia Harrison (Mifflin) Gardiner. EGE's father died when she was three years old and, as she writes in her "Memoir," "We were imported to Boston by my father's father, William Howard Gardiner, where we grew up as poor relations of a very aristocratic family." After two years in Brookline Mrs. Gardiner moved her family into Boston . EGE attended private schools; in her teens, "Going to church became my one interest." She attended Trinity Church, where she was inspired by the teachings of Phillips Brooks. EGE taught Sunday school and planned to become a missionary until, in 1877, she met Glendower Evans, then a student at Harvard College and a close friend of William James. They were married in 1882, after GE had finished Harvard Law School and entered a Boston law firm.

Their marriage was brief because GE died suddenly in 1886. During these four years, according to EGE's "Memoir," the "doors were always open to the friends he made. In those days I don't think I ever talked at all. I used to sit by the fire and listen and listen...." The friends she listened to included Louis Brandeis and William James, but it was her husband who had the greatest influence on EGE. From their first meeting he encouraged her to read more widely; literature, politics, social issues, and public service were the major topics of his letters and their discussions. After GE's death EGE added his name to hers and, as the following chronology shows, dedicated her life to studying social conditions and helping others.

1886 1914 trustee, Massachusetts State Reform Schools 1890's attended philosopher Josiah Royce's courses at Radcliffe College 1891 appointed by Boston Mayor Nathan Mathews to a special committee to inspect the public institutions 1903 met Florence Kelley 1905 helped raise money for strikers in Haverhill, Mass. 1907 visited Georgia and Alabama to study child labor conditions 1908 09 went to England to study the socialist movement, met Margaret Bondfield, John and Katherine Bruce Glasier, J. Ramsay MacDonald 1909 attended Women's Trade Union League convention in Chicago, and met Robert M. and Belle La Follette in Wisconsin 1909 35 contributor to LaFollette's Weekly (later Magazine) and it's successor, The Progressive 1910 made first suffrage speech; joined Roxbury, Mass. carpet workers' strike 1911 appointed by Massachusetts Governor Eugene N. Foss to the minimum wage commisson 1911 observed first Lawrence, Mass. Strike, met William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood 1912 14 spoke in support of suffrage in Massachusetts, the Midwest, and to President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C. 1914 traveled to Panama with Belle La Follette 1915 U.S. delegate to the International Congress of Women in The Hague 1916 campaigned for President Wilson 1919 joined the picket line at the second Lawrence, Mass. strike 1919 20 trip to England and continent 1920 37 national director, American Civil Liberties Union 1920 put up liberty bonds to bail out aliens held at Deer Island; met Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and became their personal friend and a leading supporter of their cause 1929 provided the funds for the Voluntary Defenders Committee 1931 installed radios for the prisoners at the state prison in Charlestown, Mass. 1933 was awarded the first annual Ford Hall Forum medal for "prominent service to human welfare"

EGE was extremely generous with the money she inherited, often sacrificing her own needs to help both individuals and the causes she supported. She died in 1937 at the age of 81 in Brookline, Massachusetts.

More biographical material is available in this collection (see Series I for EGE's "Memoir," diaries, articles, and tributes by others). See also the article in Notable American Women (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), which includes a list of additional sources. In the Jessie Donaldson Hodder papers (A-23) at the Schlesinger Library there are ten folders of EGE material, including correspondence and a diary . There is EGE correspondence in the La Follette Family collection in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.

From the guide to the Papers, 1859 (1882-1944), (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)

Links to collections

Comparison

This is only a preview comparison of Constellations. It will only exist until this window is closed.

  • Added or updated
  • Deleted or outdated

Information

Permalink:
SNAC ID:

Subjects:

  • Capital punishment
  • Child labor
  • Family
  • Freedom of speech
  • Friendship
  • Labor unions
  • Old age pensions
  • Peace
  • Philosophy
  • Physician and patient
  • Racism
  • Socialism
  • Spiritualism
  • Strikes and lockouts
  • Women
  • Women
  • Women social reformers
  • Women social reformers
  • Women's rights
  • Working class
  • Women
  • Women social reformers

Occupations:

  • Prison reformers
  • Social reformers

Places:

  • United States (as recorded)
  • United States (as recorded)
  • United States (as recorded)
  • Europe (as recorded)
  • Great Britain (as recorded)
  • Europe (as recorded)
  • Massachusetts--Lawrence (as recorded)
  • Germany (as recorded)
  • Massachusetts (as recorded)
  • Germany (as recorded)
  • United States (as recorded)
  • United States (as recorded)

SNAC Cooperative Logo

Social Networks and Archival Context

SNAC is a discovery service for persons, families, and organizations found within archival collections at cultural heritage institutions.

Sponsors

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
National Endowment for the Humanities

Hosts

University of Virginia Library
National Archives and Records Administration