Bolton, Frances P.

Frances Payne Bingham Bolton (1885-1977) was a Republican representative in the United States Congress from Ohio's twenty-second district in Cleveland. She was first elected by a special election in 1940 to fulfill the unexpired term of her late husband, Chester Castle Bolton (1882-1939). During her twenty-nine years in the House, Mrs. Bolton was considered an expert on foreign affairs and Africa. She concentrated her legislative efforts on nursing, health, education, and social welfare issues.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, to noted industrialist Charles William Bingham and Mary Perry Payne Bingham, Frances Payne Bingham Bolton was educated in private schools in Cleveland, New York, and Paris. As a young woman she became involved with the Visiting Nurse Association, beginning a lifelong interest in nursing and nursing education. While serving on a special committee representing three national nursing organizations during World War I, she was instrumental in influencing the establishment of an army school of nursing. During World War II, Mrs. Bolton introduced legislation, known as the Bolton Bill, creating the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Several additional pieces of legislation influencing the status of both male and female nurses in the armed forces were introduced by Bolton. In 1955 she introduced a bill to establish a National Commission on Nursing Services, the purpose of which was to address the problems of adequate nursing education and nursing care. This legislation did not pass. Privately, she was responsible for endowing, in 1923, the nursing school at Western Reserve University. The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing was one of the first university schools of nursing in the United States.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to which she was appointed in 1941, Congressman Bolton served on subcommittees covering Europe, the Near East, Balkans, Africa, and the State Department. Under its aegis, she became, in 1947, the first woman member of Congress to head an official mission abroad, presiding over an inspection tour of the Near East. Several additional trips were highlighted by a 20,000 mile study tour of Africa in 1955, the most extensive by an American Representative up to that time. As head of the subcommittee on National and International Movements, Mrs. Bolton authored "The Strategy and Tactics of World Communism," which was issued in 1948, and considered to be an important tool to understanding trends in international communism. Mrs. Bolton was also the first woman to be appointed a Congressional Delegate to the United Nations, serving as a United States representative to the Eighth General Assembly in 1953. Mrs. Bolton remained on the Foreign Affairs Committee throughout her career in Congress. In addition, in 1940 she served on the House Committee on Indian Affairs. In this capacity, she was particularly interested in the religious and ceremonial use of drugs by Native Americans.

Politically a staunch Republican, Mrs. Bolton served on the House Republican Policy Committee and as an officer of the Ohio Republican Congressional Delegation. She contributed to the authorship of the Republican party's foreign policy plank at the Mackinac Conference of 1943.

Privately, Mrs. Bolton was active in many educational and philanthropic organizations, including the Accokeek Foundation, which she founded in response to the threat of developers to despoil the banks of the Potomac River opposite Mount Vernon, the Bingham Associates Fund for the Advancement of Medicine set up by her brother William, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, the African Pavilion of the 1964-1965 World's Fair, the Payne Fund, the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University, and the Tuskegee Institute. She served on many additional boards and contributed substantial amounts of her sizable fortune to charitable causes. For her public service, Bolton was presented sixteen honorary doctorate degrees and innumerable awards.

In 1907 she was married to Chester Castle Bolton. They had four children: Charles Bingham (1909-1976), Kenyon Castle (1912-1986), Oliver Payne (1917-1972), and Elizabeth (1919-1919). Oliver Bolton served in Congress from 1953-1957 and again from 1963-1965, creating the only mother-son team in congressional history.

From the guide to the Frances Payne Bingham Bolton Papers, 1921-1985, 1939-1977, (Western Reserve Historical Society)