Ida Husted Harper

Ida Husted Harper (February 18, 1851 – March 14, 1931) was an American author, journalist, columnist, and suffragist, as well as the author of a three-volume biography of suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony at Anthony's request. Harper also co-edited and collaborated with Anthony on volume four of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage and completed the project by solo writing volumes five and six (1922) after Anthony's death. In addition, Harper served as secretary of the Indiana chapter of the National Woman Suffrage Association, became a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement in the U.S., and wrote columns on women's issues for numerous newspapers across the United States. Harper traveled extensively, delivered lectures in support of women's rights, handled press relations for a women's suffrage amendment in California, headed the National American Woman Suffrage Association's national press bureau in New York City and the editorial correspondence department of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education in Washington, D.C., and chaired the press committee of the International Council of Women.

Early life and education Ida A. Husted was born on February 18, 1851, in Fairfield Township, Franklin County, Indiana. "Of New England parentage", she was the eldest of Cassandra (Stoddard) and John Arthur Husted's three children.

Around 1861, when Husted was about ten years old, the family moved to Muncie, Indiana, in search of better schools. "She showed in childhood a remarkable memory and marked literary talent. Her education was almost wholly received in private schools," Husted entered Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, enrolling as a sophomore, but left in 1869 to become an educator and high school principal in Peru, Indiana.

Marriage and family On December 28, 1871, Husted married Thomas Winans Harper (1847–1908), a University of Michigan law school graduate and an American Civil War veteran from Ohio.

The Harpers had one child, a daughter named Winnifred. Like her mother, Winnifred Harper Cooley became a writer and journalist.

Career

Harper began her prolific career as a journalist and women's suffrage advocate in Indiana. After securing a divorce in 1890 she later moved on to California, New York, and Washington, D.C., where she continued to write for newspapers across the country, deliver lectures in support of women's rights, and complete her major works, a three-volume biography, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, and contributing to volumes four through six of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage.

Indiana

Harper moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, with her husband after their marriage in 1871 and soon began her career as a journalist. Harper's early writings also appeared in Indianapolis newspapers. however, she remained steadfast in her assertion that women had "the right to pursue whatever vocation in life she is best adapted for. . . ."

Harper met Susan B. Anthony, a leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), in 1878, when Debs sponsored Anthony's speech in Terre Haute. At that time the NWSA was one of two rival women's suffrage organizations that later merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association under Anthony's leadership. The Harper and Anthony soon became friends and colleagues. From 1884 to 1893, at Debs's invitation, Harper also edited "The Woman's Department," a monthly column in Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, the house organ of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. In addition, Harper continued her advocacy for women's suffrage, including her election in 1887 as secretary of the Indiana chapter of the NWSA. In that capacity she coordinated thirteen district conventions in a drive to pass a statewide bill to allow women to vote in municipal elections.

In 1889 Harper was invited to take an editorial position at the Terre Haute Daily News. Two weeks after her divorce in 1890, she became the newspaper's managing editor, one of the first instance on record of a woman occupying the position of managing editor on a political daily paper. Although her service as editor-in-chief was brief, she led the newspaper through a lively municipal election. Harper and the newspaper successfully supported a bipartisan slate of reform candidates in the city election. During the campaign she wrote editorials and dictated the newspaper's positions, with each candidate on the bipartisan slate elected to office. Anthony praised Harper's writing abilities, saying, "The moment I give the idea—the point—she formulates it into a good sentence—while I should have to haggle over it half an hour." In collaboration with Anthony, Harper published the first two volumes of the biography in 1898. Harper wrote the third volume, which was published in 1908, two years after Anthony's death. Harper also worked with Anthony to write and edit the fourth volume, published in 1902, of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage.

Around the turn of the century Harper spent several years traveling extensively with Anthony, attending women's rights gatherings and delivering lectures.

In addition to Harper's newspaper articles and lectures around the country, she became active in the International Council of Women, which Anthony had been instrumental in creating. From 1899 to 1902, Harper was chairwoman of the press committee of the ICW and wrote articles for International Suffrage News, which was published in Europe. In 1910 Harper became head of the NAWSA's national press bureau in New York City, supplying information and developing a market for articles about women's suffrage in magazines and newspapers around the country. She also testified in favor of women's suffrage before U.S. congressional committees. The bureau's publicity contributed to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919 that guarantees the right of women to vote. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Harper completed writing the fifth and sixth volumes, published in 1922, of the History of Woman Suffrage.

The Archives and Manuscripts Division of the New York Public Library holds a collection of Harper's papers. Other collections of her newspaper articles and other related material are in the special collections of the Huntington Library at San Marino, California, and the Vigo County Public Library in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Selected published works Major works The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, three volumes (1898–1908) History of Woman Suffrage, edited volume four (1902), co-written with Susan B. Anthony; solo author of volumes five (1922) and six (1922).

Other The Associated Work of the Women of Indiana (1893) Suffrage a Right (1906) Woman Suffrage Throughout the World (1907) History of the Movement for Woman Suffrage in the United States (1907) How Six States Won Woman Suffrage (1912) Suffrage Snapshots (1915) A National Amendment for Woman Suffrage (1915) A Brief History of the Movement for Woman Suffrage in the United States (1917) Story of the National Amendment for Woman Suffrage (1919) Life of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw (1927)