Eva Parker Ingersoll

Eva Parker Ingersoll (née Eva Amelia Parker; 4 May 1841 – 2 February 1923) was an American freethinker, activist, said to have been a significant influence on the development of her husband's own humanism.

Early life Eva Amelia Parker was born in Groveland, Illinois. Her parents were freethinkers: admirers of Thomas Paine and Voltaire. Eva's paternal grandmother, Sarah Buckman Parker, was described as bright and a noted “infidel.” Eva Parker was described as being 'as free a thinker' as he was. The family were described as being 'good heretics and "infidels" on their own account' and, as such, had been 'intensely interested in Robert ever since he made his first anti-theological speech, entitled Progress, at Pekin, Illinois, about a year before'. This sentiment was echoed in the biography of Robert Ingersoll written by the couple's granddaughter, who wrote:Robert Ingersoll enjoyed the incomparable blessing of a supremely happy home from the day of his marriage until the day of his death. For thirty-eight years husband and wife were intellectual and spiritual comrades as well as romantic lovers, sharing each other's beliefs, thoughts, and emotions, consecrated to the same ideals and purposes. Robert inscribed his first published volume of lectures to "My Wife, a Woman Without Superstition." Robert and Eva Ingersoll had two daughters, Eva and Maud, both of whom went on to be prominent activists. Eva Ingersoll Brown's daughter, Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield (1892–1970) was, alongside John Dewey, Albert Einstein, Julian Huxley, Thomas Mann, and George W. Rappleyea, an early member of The First Humanist Society of New York, founded in 1929.

Activism Eva Parker Ingersoll (front row, right) at the International Anti-Vivisection Congress, 1913. Also pictured is her younger sister, Sue M. Farrell (top row, left). In her biography of Robert Ingersoll, Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield also described Eva's activism for a range of causes:The two Evas and Maud were... women of vast public spirit, passionately concerned with the important issues of the day and of the age. Every movement for the betterment of humanity found in them eager and generous champions: birth control; child welfare; world peace; woman suffrage, and equality for women in all offices and relations of life; purified politics; slum clearance and model housing; prison reform; social justice; opposition to prejudice, injustice, and cruelty wherever found; intellectual liberty—all these they worked for with true Ingersollian enthusiasm, independence, and moral courage. As active members of the Audubon Society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and other humane organizations, they fought continuously for the rights of defenceless animals. In 1913, both Eva Ingersoll and her daughter, Maud, were among the Vice Presidents of the International Anti-Vivisection Congress, which had as its object: 'to advocate a consistent opposition to all forms of cruelty to animals.'

Death Eva Amelia Parker Ingersoll died on 2 February 1923 at her home in New York City, at the age of 82. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. who had also led Robert Ingersoll's funeral.