Vira Boarman Whitehouse
Born
Vira Boarman

(1875-09-16)September 16, 1875
New Orleans, Louisiana
DiedApril 11, 1957(1957-04-11) (aged 81)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Known forSuffragette
Spouse
James Norman de Rapelye Whitehouse
​
​
(m. 1898; died 1949)​
ChildrenAlice Whitehouse Harjes

Vira Boarman Whitehouse (September 16, 1875 – April 11, 1957) was an American suffragette, government official, and businessperson. She was the owner of the Whitehouse Leather Company and an early proponent of birth control.[1] She directed the Swiss office of the Committee on Public Information in 1918.

Early life

Vira Boarman was born in Abingdon, Virginia, September 16, 1875, to Robert Boarman and Cornelia Terrell.[1][2]

She attended Newcomb College in New Orleans and was a member of Pi Beta Phi.[1][3]

She married New York stockbroker James Norman de Rapelye Whitehouse (1858–1949) on April 13, 1898. They had one child, Alice Whitehouse Harjes.[1]

Suffrage

Whitehouse became interested in suffrage after the Woman suffrage parade of 1913 erupted into violence.[3] She marched in the May 1913 suffrage parade in New York City and volunteered with the Women's Political Union after the parade.[3] Six months later Whitehouse gave her first outdoor suffrage speech.[4]

She was chairman in 1913 of the publicity council of the Empire State Campaign Committee and in 1916 of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party (NYSWSP).[1]

In May 1915, Whitehouse made cold calls to potential voters to ask their views on suffrage. This is one of the earliest examples of telephone polling.[5]

Whitehouse led an incredibly successful fundraising campaign, making large donations herself and soliciting donations from New York's most prominent families.[6]

When New York State granted women the right to vote on November 6, 1917, Whitehouse was widely credited with the win.[5]

Whitehouse's husband was a member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage,[7] by July 1917 he was treasurer of the League.[8]

Foreign service

In 1918, she became director of the Swiss office of the Committee on Public Information, where she worked closely with Rosika Schwimmer, the Hungarian ambassador to Switzerland, and one of the first female ambassadors in the world.[9] This appointment was a direct result of her success in the suffrage movement. George Creel, head of the United States Committee on Public Information, had formerly been the publicity chair for the New York chapter of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage.[8] He explained Whitehouse's appointment as "Mrs. Whitehouse's job was to put America across in Switzerland the way she had put equal suffrage across in New York."[5] Her main job in Switzerland was to provide accurate information to Swiss newspapers interested in American affairs without violating Switzerland's policy of neutrality.[10] She held the position for eleven months, but only spent six months actively working in Switzerland.[10] Nevertheless, her work was considered successful.[10] Whitehouse reported her experiences in A Year as a Government Agent (1920).[11]

Later life

Vira Boarman Whitehouse, 1921

In 1921, she bought the Buchan-Murphy Manufacturing Company, a leather business, renamed it the Whitehouse Leather Products Company, Inc., and reorganized it with herself as president. She managed the company for eight years, reducing the work week from 48 hours to 44 hours, among other changes.[1]

In 1925, she was elected a member of the Democratic County Committee from Manhattan's 15th Assembly District.[1]

The following year, she became Chairman of the Independent Women's Committee for Judge Wagner.[12] She sold her leather company before the stock market crash of 1929.[1]

She died at her home in New York City on April 11, 1957.[1][13]

Legacy

Her papers are archived at the Harvard University Library.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Whitehouse, Vira Boarman, 1875-1957". Retrieved 2010-07-24. Vira (Boarman) Whitehouse was born in Virginia on September 16, 1875, the daughter of Robert and Cornelia (Terrell) Boarman. Educated at Newcomb College in New Orleans, VBW married Norman de R. Whitehouse, a New York stockbroker, April 13, 1898. The couple had one child, Alice (Whitehouse) Harjes. ...
  2. ↑ Social register, New York. Social Register Association. 1915. p. 713.
  3. 1 2 3 The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi. Pi Beta Phi Fraternity. 1918.
  4. ↑ Goodier, Susan; Pastorello, Karen (2017-09-15). Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501713194.
  5. 1 2 3 Neuman, Johanna (2017-09-05). Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites who Fought for Women's Right to Vote. NYU Press. ISBN 9781479837069.
  6. ↑ Johnson, Joan Marie (2017-08-04). Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870–1967. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469634708.
  7. ↑ "The Men Who Helped Get Women the Vote". THE GOTHAM CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY HISTORY. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  8. 1 2 Kroeger, Brooke (2017-05-11). The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438466293.
  9. ↑ Tibor Grant, "Against All Odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzherland, 1918." American Studies International, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2002: 34-51
  10. 1 2 3 Glant, Tibor (February 2002). "Against All Odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzerland, 1918" (PDF). American Studies International. 40: 34–51.
  11. ↑ Manning, Martin J.; Romerstein, Herbert (November 30, 2004). Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 319–20. ISBN 978-0313296055. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  12. ↑ "She Sees Wadsworth Bringing the Party to 'the Brink of Ruin.'". The New York Times. October 20, 1926. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
  13. ↑ Berns, David (April 12, 1957). "Mrs. Whitehouse, Suffrage Leader. State Party Chairman Who Was Credited With Winning The Vote In 1917 Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-07-24. Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, a leader in the woman's suffrage movement in New York State, died yesterday after a long illness in her home at 39 East Seventy-ninth Street. She was 82 years old. ...

Further reading

  • Tibor Grant, "Against All Odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzherland, 1918." American Studies International, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2002: 34-51
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