Anne Withington

Anne Withington
Anne Withington, from her 1915 passport application
Born	January 17, 1867 Newbury, Massachusetts
Died	January 12, 1933 Newburyport, Massachusetts
Occupation(s)	Pacifist, suffragist, trade unionist
Relatives	Leonard Withington (grandfather) Lothrop Withington (brother) Paul Withington (nephew)

Anne Toppan Withington (January 17, 1867 – January 12, 1933) was an American activist in the causes of peace, women's suffrage, and organized labor. She served on the executive board of the Massachusetts Political Equality Union, and was a member of the American delegations to the International Congress of Women meetings in The Hague in 1915, and in Zürich in 1919.

Early life and education

Withington was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, the daughter of Nathan Noyes Withington and Elizabeth Little Withington. Her father, a newspaper editor, teacher, and local historian, served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[1][2] Her paternal grandfather was clergyman Leonard Withington. Her older brother Lothrop Withington was an editor and historian who died in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Her nephew Paul Withington was a college football coach.[3]

Career

Withington worked at Jane Addams' Hull House settlement in Chicago as a young woman.[4] She established and maintained experimental school gardens[5] at several schools in Boston,[6][7][8] and lectured on the "moral and economic benefit" of home gardens in Boston in 1907.[9] In 1908, she supported William Jennings Bryan's campaign for president, saying "I think the intelligent suffragists have decided personal opinions on political matters and, therefore, it would be disastrous to the woman suffrage movement for them to commit themselves to either party."[10]

In 1909, Withington contributed to a Boston Globe feature on "Why Women Wage Earners Should Organize", alongside Emily Greene Balch, Margaret L. Foley, John Golden, John F. Tobin, and Henry Sterling; she wrote, "Women have always done more than their share of the work of the world, and now, for the first time, they are beginning to realize its value."[11] In 1911, as secretary of the School Voters' League, she organized the political campaign of Susan Walker Fitzgerald, when she ran for the Boston school board.[12][13] She served on the executive board of the Massachusetts Political Equality Union.[14] She represented the Women's Trade Union League of Boston and the Political Equality League of Boston[15] in the American delegations to the International Congress of Women meetings in The Hague in 1915,[16] and in Zürich in 1919.[4]

In 1927, she was a delegate to the First Pan Pacific Conference on Education, Rehabilitation, Reclamation and Recreation, held in Honolulu, where her older brother lived.[17][18]

Publications

• The history of trade unionism among women in Boston (1906, pamphlet for the Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts)[19]
• "Uses of School Gardens" (1907)[20]
• Men, the Workers (1909, collected essays by Henry Demarest Lloyd, edited by Withington and Caroline Stallbohm)[21]
• "Two Fundamental Reasons" (1909)[11]
• "The Lawrence Strike" (1912)
• "When the Telephone Girls Organized" (1913)[22]
• "The Telephone Strike" (1919)

Personal life

Withington died in 1933, just before her 66th birthday, in Newburyport, Massachusetts.[23]

References

1. "Descendants of Henry Withington". The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. New England Historic Genealogical Society. January 1922. pp. 10–11.
2. Amherst College (1914). Obituary Record of Graduates of Amherst College. Amherst College. pp. 68–69.
3. "Lothrop Withington". The Boston Globe. 1915-05-08. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Withington, Anne (1867-1933)". Jane Addams Digital Edition. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
5. "Happy Boy and Girl Gardeners". The Boston Globe. 1901-11-04. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "Outdoor School Gardens; Pupils in Several Buildings Now Interested in Then". The Boston Globe. 1903-04-07. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Boston Leads the Country with its School Gardens". The Boston Globe. 1903-07-20. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
8. "Fourteen Garden Schools in Boston". The Boston Globe. 1907-07-21. p. 47. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Uses of the Home Garden: Miss Anne Withington Lectures on its Moral and Economic Benefit". The Boston Globe. 1907-02-16. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "Not All for Taft; Woman Suffragist Praises Bryan; Miss Withington Says Body Must Not Commit to Either". The Boston Globe. 1908-08-23. p. 39. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
11. "Why Women Wage Earners Should Organize". The Boston Globe. 1909-03-21. p. 38. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
12. "A Boston Woman's Novel Campaign". The Kansas City Times. 1911-12-14. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Planning for Next Campaign". Boston Evening Transcript. 1912-01-11. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Both Claim Victory". The Boston Globe. 1915-10-12. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
15. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Congress (1915). Bericht-Rapport-Report: 1921. International women's committee of permanent peace. p. 270.
16. "American Delegation to Women's Peace Congress at the Hague". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1915-05-17. p. 26. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Revised List of Delegates to Educational Conference". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1927-04-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
18. First Pan Pacific Conference on Education, Rehabilitation, Reclamation and Recreation: Called by the President of the United States of America in Conformity with a Joint Resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States and Held Under the Auspices of the Department of the Interior at Honolulu, Hawaii, April 11 to 16, 1927 : Report of the Proceedings. Department of the Interior. 1927.
19. Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts; Withington, Anne; Gillespie, Mabel; Abbott, Edith (1906). The history of trade unionism among women in Boston. Boston: Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts.
20. Withington, Anne (1907-02-16). "Uses of School Gardens". Boston Evening Transcript. p. 18. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.
21. Lloyd, Henry Demarest; Stallbohm, Caroline; Withington, Anne (1909). Men, the workers. New York: Doubleday, Page.
22. Withington, Anne (August 16, 1913). "When the Telephone Girls Organized". The Survey. 30 (20): 621–623.
23. "Miss Anne Withington, Suffrage Leader, Dies". Rutland Daily Herald. 1933-01-13. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-19 – via Newspapers.com.