)
Julia Ward (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, poet, and the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
Biography
Julia was born in New York City. She was the fourth of seven children born to banker Samuel Ward III and occasional poet Julia Rush Cutler. Her eldest brother was Samuel Cutler Ward. Samuel Ward III was a well-to-do banker. Julia Rush Cutler was related to Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the American Revolution.
In 1843, she married Samuel Gridley Howe (1801—1876), a physician and reformer who founded the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] His parents were Joseph Neals Howe and Patty Gridley. They announced their engagement quite suddenly on February 21; though Howe had courted Julia for a time, he had more recently shown an interest in her sister Louisa.[2] They had six children:
- Julia Romana Howe (1844–1886)
- Florence Marion Howe (1845–1922)
- Henry Marion Howe (1848–1922)
- Laura Elizabeth Howe (1850–1943)
- Maud Howe (1855–1948)
- Samuel Gridley Howe, Jr. (1858–1863)
Her book, Passion-Flowers, was published in December 1853. The book collected intensely personal poems and was written without the awareness of her husband, who was then editing the Free Soil newspaper The Commonwealth.[3]
Social activism
Julia Ward Howe was inspired to write "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" after she and her husband visited Washington, D. C., and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in November 1861. During the trip, her friend James Freeman Clarke suggested she write new words to the song "John Brown's Body", which she did on November 19.[4] The song was set to William Steffe's already-existing music and Howe's version was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It quickly became one of the most popular songs of the Union during the American Civil War.
After the war she focused her activities on the causes of pacifism and women's suffrage. In 1870 she wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation. It was a "Mother's Day for Peace", asking women from the world to join for world's peace. In 1872, she asked that "Mother's Day" be celebrated on the 2nd of June.[5][6][7][8] Her efforts were not successful, and by 1893 she was wondering if the 4th of July could be remade into "Mother's Day".[5] From 1872 to 1879, she assisted Lucy Stone and Henry Brown Blackwell in editing Woman's Journal.
After her husband's death in 1876, she focused more on her interests in reform. She was the founder and president of the Association of American Women, a group which advocated for women's education, from 1876 to 1897. She also served as president of organizations like the New England Women's Club, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, the New England Suffrage Association, and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).[9]
Death
)
Howe died of pneumonia October 17, 1910, at her home, Oak Glen, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, at the age of 91.[10] She is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[11]
After her death, her children collaborated on a biography, published in 1916. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.[12]
Honors
On January 28, 1908, at age 88, Howe became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Howe was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
She has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a 14¢ Great Americans series postage stamp issued in 1987.
The Julia Ward Howe School of Excellence in Chicago's Austin community is named in her honor.
The Howe neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN was named for her.[13]
The Julia Ward Howe Academics Plus Elementary School in Philadelphia was named in her honor in 1913. It celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2013-14.
Her Rhode Island home, Oak Glen, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Works and collections
Poetry
- Passion-Flowers (1854)
- Words for the Hour (1857)
- From Sunset Ridge: Poems Old and New (1898)[9]
- Later Lyrics (1866)
- At Sunset (published posthumously, 1910)[9]
Other works
- The Hermaphrodite. Incomplete, but probably composed between 1846 and 1847. Published by University of Nebraska Press, 2004
- From the Oak to the Olive (travel writing, 1868)[14]
- Modern Society (essays, 1881)[9]
- Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli) (biography, 1883)[9]
- Woman's work in America (1891)
- Is Polite Society Polite? (essays, 1895)[9]
- Reminiscences: 1819–1899 (autobiography, 1899)[9]
See also
- List of peace activists
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- List of women's rights activists
- Timeline of women's suffrage
- Ann Jarvis
- Gardiner, Maine, Howe's home for many years
- Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House
References
- ^ Richards, Laura E., and Maud Howe Elliott. Julia Ward Howe, 1819—1910, vol. I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916.
- ^ Williams, Gary. Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999: 33. ISBN 1-55849-157-0
- ^ Williams, Gary. Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999: 134–135. ISBN 1-55849-157-0
- ^ Williams, Gary. Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999: 208. ISBN 1-55849-157-0
- ^ a b LEIGH Eric Schmidt (1997). Princeton University Press, ed. Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (reprint, illustrated ed.). pp. 252, 348 (footnote 17 of chapter 5). ISBN 0-691-01721-2. citing Deborah Pickman Clifford, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Biography of Julia Ward Howe (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 187, 207, and Julia Ward Howe, "How the Fourth of July Should Be Celebrated", Forum 15 (July 1983); 574
- ^ The History of Mother's Day from The Legacy Project, a Legacy Center (Canada) website
- ^ Virginia Bernhard (2002). "Mother's Day". In Joseph M. Hawes, Elizabeth F. Shores. The family in America: an encyclopedia (3, illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 714. ISBN 1-57607-232-0, 9781576072325 Check
|isbn=value (help). - ^ The First Anniversary of 'Mother's Day'", The New York Times, June 3, 1874, p. 8: "'Mother's Day,' which was inaugurated in this city on the 2nd of June, 1872, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howards [sic], was celebrated last night at Plimpton Hall by a mother's peace meeting..."
- ^ a b c d e f g Ziegler, Valarie H. Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2003: 148–149. ISBN 1-56338-418-3
- ^ Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 71. ISBN 0-19-503186-5
- ^ Corbett, William. Literary New England: A History and Guide. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1993: 106. ISBN 0-571-19816-3
- ^ Ziegler, Valarie H. Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2003: 11. ISBN 1-56338-418-3
- ^
- ^
Further reading
- Representative women of New England. Boston: New England Historical Pub. Co., 1904.
- Richards, Laura Elizabeth. Julia Ward Howe, 1819–1910. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916. 2 vol.
- Clifford, Deborah Pickman. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Biography of Julia Ward Howe. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1978.
- Trent, James W., Jr. The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform. University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.
External links
Works and papers
- Works by Julia Ward Howe at Project Gutenberg
- Howe Papers at Harvard University
- Articles by Howe Archive at "Making of America" project, Cornell University Library
- Poetry at Representative Poetry Online (University of Toronto)
- Mother's Day Proclamation (1870)
- Julia Ward Howe.org Electronic archive of Howe's life and works
- Finding Aid for the Julia Ward Howe Papers at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- Julia Ward Howe battle hymn from the Julia Ward Howe Papers, 1891-1898 at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- Free scores by Julia Ward Howe in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-century American Reform, by James W. Trent Jr.
- Papers,1857-1961. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
- Papers of the Julia Ward Howe family, 1787-1984. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Biographies
- Julia Ward Howe, biography by Laura E. Richards, online at the University of Pennsylvania
- Biography Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography
- Julia Ward Howe at Answers.com
Honors
- National Women's Hall of Fame
- Julia Ward Howe at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
- Plaque on the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. marking where Howe wrote the Hymn
- Welcome to Howe Elementary School at www.mtlsd.org
Family
Other
- Julia Ward Howe at Find a Grave
- Julia Ward Howe photo from the Julia Ward Howe Papers, 1891-1898 at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
| |||||||||||
){kind=small}
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|