Alice Gram Robinson
{{short description|American suffragist}}
{{about|the American suffragist and editor|the New Zealand skier|Alice Robinson}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alice Gram Robinson
| image = AliceGramRobinson1923.png
| alt = A young white woman with dark hair, wearing a cloche-style light-colored hat and a loose dress with a scooped neckline
| caption = Alice Gram Robinson, from her 1923 passport application
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = March 16, 1895
| birth_place = Omaha, Nebraska
| death_date = January 24, 1984 (aged 88)
| death_place = Warrenton, Virginia
| occupation = Suffragist, journalist, editor
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives = Betty Gram Swing (sister); Raymond Gram Swing (brother-in-law)
}}
Alice M. Gram Robinson (March 16, 1895 – January 24, 1984)Some sources give her birth year as 1896; the dates given here are from her Virginia death certificate, registered 31 Jan 1984, via Ancestry; her birth month was also given as March 1895 in the 1900 United States census manuscript returns, via Ancestry. Her gravestone also gives 1895 as the year. was an American suffragist, journalist, and editor. She was the founder, editor, publisher, and longtime president of the Congressional Digest.
Early life and education
Alice M. Gram was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in Oregon, the daughter of Andreas (Andrew) Peter Gram and Karen (Carrie) Jensen. Her parents were immigrants from Denmark. Her older sister Betty Gram Swing was a suffragist.{{Cite web |title=Oregon Women Protest for Suffrage |url=http://www.oregonwomenshistory.org/oregon-women-protest-for-suffrage-national-womans-party-members-in-oregon-and-in-washington-d-c-1917-1918/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=Oregon Women’s History Consortium |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1969-09-04 |title=Mrs. Betty Gram Swing Dies; Women's Rights Campaigner |pages=69 |work=The Bridgeport Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121296570/mrs-betty-gram-swing-dies-womens/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |via=Newspapers.com}} She and her sister both attended the University of Oregon,{{Cite news |date=1917-11-18 |title=What Society is Doing |pages=34 |work=The Oregon Daily Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121297524/what-society-is-doing/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |via=Newspapers.com}} and both were members of Kappa Alpha Theta.{{Cite web |last=Pratt |first=Katie |title=Biographical Sketch of Alice Gram Robinson |url=https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009054742 |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=Alexander Street Documents}}
Career
Gram was a student in 1917 when she traveled to Washington, D.C. as a member of the College Equal Suffrage League, and was arrested for obstructing traffic while carrying a banner at a National Woman's Party Silent Sentinels demonstration.{{Cite news |date=1917-11-11 |title=Forty-One Women Are Arrested for Picketing Wilson; Two Miss Grams of Portland Among Publicity Seekers for Women's Party at the White House |pages=6 |work=The Oregon Daily Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121296415/forty-one-women-are-arrested-for/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |via=Newspapers.com}} She and her sister both served more than a week at Occoquan Workhouse,{{Cite news |date=1917-11-11 |title=Mrs. Gram Blames Party Missionaries for Plight of Girls |pages=6 |work=The Oregon Daily Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121296217/mrs-gram-blames-party-missionaries-for/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |via=Newspapers.com}} before they were pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson.{{Cite web |last=Perry |first=Douglas |date=2022-04-11 |title=Portland's Gram sisters went to jail together as militant suffragists, then their paths diverged |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2022/04/portlands-gram-sisters-went-to-jail-together-as-militant-suffragists-then-their-paths-diverged.html |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=Oregon Live |language=en}} Gram stayed in Washington, first working for the National Woman's Party, and in 1919 as one of the co-founders of the Women's National Press Club, along with Cora Rigby, Carolyn Vance Bell, Elizabeth King, Florence Brewer Boeckel, and Eleanor Nelson.Klein, Gil. [https://www.press.org/newsroom/npc-history-gram-robinson-womens-suffrage-and-womens-national-press-club "NPC in History: Gram Robinson, women’s suffrage and the Women’s National Press Club"] The National Press Club (August 19, 2020).{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDxaNHLBlRgC&dq=Alice+Gram+Robinson&pg=PA104 |title=Reliable Sources: The National Press Club in the American Century |date=1997 |publisher=Turner Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-56311-375-8 |pages=104 |language=en}}
Gram founded The Capitol Eye (soon retitled Congressional Digest) in 1921, initially to help new women voters understand legislative issues by presenting arguments regarding bills dealing with public health and education in a side-by-side, pro/con format.{{Cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Katherine H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyaxYvSG6gAC&dq=Alice+Gram+Robinson&pg=PA100 |title=After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists |last2=Keene |first2=Michael L. |date=2014-01-10 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5647-5 |pages=100–103 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |date=November 1921 |title=A Statement by the Editors |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQRrAxEd8sYC&dq=Alice+Gram+Robinson&pg=RA7-PA258 |journal=The Capital Eye |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=2}} She was president of the Congressional Digest until 1983, when her son took over the publication.{{Cite news |title=Norborne T.N. Robinson III, editor, publisher |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/norborne-tn-robinson-iii-editor-publisher/2011/07/04/gHQAdY5bzH_story.html |access-date=2023-03-20 |issn=0190-8286}} In 1928 she was director of the Women's Division of the Republican National Committee.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Papers of Alice Gram Robinson, 1917-1968, 1999 |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/7124 |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=Schlesinger Library}}
Personal life
Gram married fellow journalist Norbonne T. Robinson Jr. in 1922, and had a son, Norbonne III. The Robinsons divorced in 1945, and her ex-husband died in 1947.{{Cite news |date=1947-06-29 |title=N. T. N. Robinson, 71, Dies; Once Edited Congressional Digest |pages=20 |work=Evening Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121298111/n-t-n-robinson-71-dies-once/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |via=Newspapers.com}} She died from cancer in 1984, in Warrenton, Virginia, at the age of 88.{{Cite news |title=Publisher, Writer Alice G. Robinson Dies in Va. at 88 |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/01/28/publisher-writer-alice-g-robinson-dies-in-va-at-88/0cb7bf8d-f4a5-43e1-99e8-9892f70e5cb6/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |issn=0190-8286}} There is a small collection of her papers at the Schlesinger Library.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Silent Sentinels}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Alice Gram}}
Category:Activists from Omaha, Nebraska
Category:Writers from Omaha, Nebraska
Category:University of Oregon alumni
Category:American people of Danish descent
Category:Members of the League of Women Voters