fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Vassar clandestine suffragist to be honored on centennial of NY women’s suffrage

by HV1 Staff
April 9, 2017
in Local History
2
Vassar clandestine suffragist to be honored on centennial of NY women’s suffrage

In 1913, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, Vassar alumna and lawyer Inez Milholland led a parade through Washington, DC astride a big white horse, wearing a crown and a long white cape, followed by some 10,000 suffragettes. Crowds of men jeered, spat on and harassed the marchers, but Milholland was afterwards likened to Joan of Arc. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

In 1913, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, Vassar alumna and lawyer Inez Milholland led a parade through Washington, DC astride a big white horse, wearing a crown and a long white cape, followed by some 10,000 suffragettes. Crowds of men jeered, spat on and harassed the marchers, but Milholland was afterwards likened to Joan of Arc. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

 

Inez with faceted-star crown in 1911 (Rudolph Eickemeyer, Jr. | Library of Congress)

While America readies itself to mark the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution three years from now (presuming that the National Endowment for the Humanities is still around to fund such festivities), New Yorkers can start celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage this year, since this state gave women the vote in 1917. Among the planned activities is “Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial,” a large-scale exhibition that the New York State Education Department and the Office of Cultural Education will mount this autumn at the New York State Museum in Albany.

One of the New York-based heroines of that movement was a Vassar scholar/athlete named Inez Milholland, who became friends with English suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst during one of her many visits to London. Upon her return to the US for her junior year, Milholland made it her mission to galvanize American women to seek the vote. But the president of Vassar College at the time (1908), James Monroe Taylor, strictly forbade any discussion of women’s suffrage on campus. So Milholland and some of her classmates and Vassar alumnae organized a meeting in a nearby cemetery to found a renegade Vassar Votes for Women Club.

Milholland went on to get a law degree at NYU and became an activist for a variety of social and labor reforms. Talented both at oratory and political theater, she swiftly became a leader in the national Women’s Suffrage movement. In 1913, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, she led a parade through Washington, DC astride a big white horse, wearing a crown and a long white cape, followed by some 10,000 suffragettes. Crowds of men jeered, spat on and harassed the marchers, but Milholland was afterwards likened to Joan of Arc.

In 1915 the young activist became involved in opposing US involvement in World War I, then spent some time working as a war correspondent. Her pacifist views got her fired from that assignment, so she returned to the suffrage movement, giving speeches around the country and driving herself so hard that she developed pernicious anemia.

Dead by late 1916 at the age of 30, Milholland was lionized as a martyr for Women’s Suffrage. A mountain in the Adirondacks near her family estate was renamed Mt. Inez in her honor. A younger and eventually more famous Vassar student, Edna St. Vincent Millay, considered Milholland her personal hero, and wrote a sonnet for the unveiling of a memorial to her that ends with the line, “Take up the song; forget the epitaph.” (Millay later went on to marry Milholland’s widower, Eugen Jan Boissevain.)

In a year when women around the country are once again marching for their rights by the tens of thousands, perhaps it’s time to “Take up the song” that Inez Milholland sang once again. For more biographical info, visit http://inezmilholland.org, http://inezmilhollandcentennial.com and https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/alumni/inez-milholland.html.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

HV1 Staff

Related Posts

Daniel Smiley, Thomas H. Elliott, Judge Sharpe and more from the headlines 100 years ago
Columns

Daniel Smiley, Thomas H. Elliott, Judge Sharpe and more from the headlines 100 years ago

May 12, 2025
Beacons through time: Illuminating the legacy of Hudson River lighthouses in Ulster County
Local History

Beacons through time: Illuminating the legacy of Hudson River lighthouses in Ulster County

April 30, 2025
Eggs, coal, peaches and more from the headlines 100 years ago
Columns

Eggs, coal, peaches and more from the headlines 100 years ago

April 7, 2025
Celebrate the local history of textiles at Kingston City Hall this Saturday
Local History

Celebrate the local history of textiles at Kingston City Hall this Saturday

March 28, 2025
Earthquake, radio enthused, Ralph LeFevre and more from the headlines 100 years ago
Columns

Earthquake, radio enthused, Ralph LeFevre and more from the headlines 100 years ago

March 10, 2025
Local historian pitches project that could eventually lead to a rail car along lower Main Street in New Paltz
Local History

Local historian pitches project that could eventually lead to a rail car along lower Main Street in New Paltz

February 17, 2025
Next Post
Saugerties youth awarded for positive contributions

Saugerties youth awarded for positive contributions

Please login to join discussion

Weather

Kingston, NY
48°
Rain
5:21 am8:25 pm EDT
Feels like: 46°F
Wind: 5mph WSW
Humidity: 88%
Pressure: 29.46"Hg
UV index: 0
SunMonTue
64°F / 46°F
75°F / 46°F
82°F / 57°F
Kingston, NY weather forecast for tomorrow ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing