Anne Withington
{{short description|American activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Anne Withington
| image = AnneWithington1915.png
| alt = A middle-aged white woman with grey hair
| caption = Anne Withington, from her 1915 passport application
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = January 17, 1867
| birth_place = Newbury, Massachusetts
| death_date = January 12, 1933
| death_place = Newburyport, Massachusetts
| occupation = Pacifist, suffragist, trade unionist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| 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.{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zyhAAAAAYAAJ&dq=Nathan+Noyes+Withington&pg=PA8 |title=The New England Historical and Genealogical Register |date=January 1922 |publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society |pages=10–11 |language=en |chapter=Descendants of Henry Withington}}{{Cite book |last=Amherst College |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjxFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Nathan+Noyes+Withington&pg=PA68 |title=Obituary Record of Graduates of Amherst College |date=1914 |publisher=Amherst College |pages=68–69 |language=en}} 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 medical doctor and college football coach.{{Cite news |date=1915-05-08 |title=Lothrop Withington |pages=9 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116791713/lothrop-withington/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Withington worked at Jane Addams' Hull House settlement in Chicago as a young woman. She established and maintained experimental school gardens{{Cite news |date=1901-11-04 |title=Happy Boy and Girl Gardeners |pages=2 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116794960/happy-boy-and-girl-gardeners/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} at several schools in Boston,{{Cite news |date=1903-04-07 |title=Outdoor School Gardens; Pupils in Several Buildings Now Interested in Then |pages=2 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116791859/outdoor-school-gardens-pupils-in/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1903-07-20 |title=Boston Leads the Country with its School Gardens |pages=5 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116792737/boston-leads-the-country-with-its/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1907-07-21 |title=Fourteen Garden Schools in Boston |pages=47 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116793012/fourteen-garden-schools-in-boston/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} and lectured on the "moral and economic benefit" of home gardens in Boston in 1907.{{Cite news |date=1907-02-16 |title=Uses of the Home Garden: Miss Anne Withington Lectures on its Moral and Economic Benefit |pages=11 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116769496/uses-of-the-home-garden-miss-anne/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} 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."{{Cite news |date=1908-08-23 |title=Not All for Taft; Woman Suffragist Praises Bryan; Miss Withington Says Body Must Not Commit to Either |pages=39 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116792102/not-all-for-taft-woman-suffragist/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}
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."{{Cite news |date=1909-03-21 |title=Why Women Wage Earners Should Organize |pages=38 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116790440/why-women-wage-earners-should-organize/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} 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.{{Cite news |date=1911-12-14 |title=A Boston Woman's Novel Campaign |pages=8 |work=The Kansas City Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116789548/a-boston-womans-novel-campaign/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1912-01-11 |title=Planning for Next Campaign |pages=2 |work=Boston Evening Transcript |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116794777/planning-for-next-campaign/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} She served on the executive board of the Massachusetts Political Equality Union.{{Cite news |date=1915-10-12 |title=Both Claim Victory |pages=11 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116793357/both-claim-victory/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} She represented the Women's Trade Union League of Boston and the Political Equality League of Boston{{Cite book |last=Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Congress |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mDspAAAAYAAJ&dq=Anne+Withington+peace&pg=PA270 |title=Bericht-Rapport-Report: 1921 |date=1915 |publisher=International women's committee of permanent peace |pages=270 |language=en}} in the American delegations to the International Congress of Women meetings in The Hague in 1915,{{Cite news |date=1915-05-17 |title=American Delegation to Women's Peace Congress at the Hague |pages=26 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116796282/american-delegation-to-womens-peace/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}} and in Zürich in 1919.{{Cite web |title=Withington, Anne (1867-1933) |url=https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/270 |access-date=2023-01-19 |website=Jane Addams Digital Edition}}
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.{{Cite news |date=1927-04-12 |title=Revised List of Delegates to Educational Conference |pages=2 |work=The Honolulu Advertiser |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116795694/revised-list-of-delegates-to/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nnDNAAAAMAAJ |title=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 |date=1927 |publisher=Department of the Interior |language=en}}
Publications
- The history of trade unionism among women in Boston (1906, pamphlet for the Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts){{Cite book |last1=Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100321875 |title=The history of trade unionism among women in Boston |last2=Withington |first2=Anne |last3=Gillespie |first3=Mabel |last4=Abbott |first4=Edith |date=1906 |publisher=Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts |location=Boston}}
- "Uses of School Gardens" (1907){{Cite news |last=Withington |first=Anne |date=1907-02-16 |title=Uses of School Gardens |pages=18 |work=Boston Evening Transcript |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116793938/uses-of-school-gardensanne-withington/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Men, the Workers (1909, collected essays by Henry Demarest Lloyd, edited by Withington and Caroline Stallbohm){{Cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Henry Demarest |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100557945 |title=Men, the workers |last2=Stallbohm |first2=Caroline |last3=Withington |first3=Anne |date=1909 |publisher=Doubleday, Page |location=New York}}
- "Two Fundamental Reasons" (1909)
- "The Lawrence Strike" (1912)
- "When the Telephone Girls Organized" (1913){{Cite journal |last=Withington |first=Anne |date=August 16, 1913 |title=When the Telephone Girls Organized |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CMsgAQAAIAAJ&dq=Anne+Withington+peace&pg=PA621 |journal=The Survey |volume=30 |issue=20 |pages=621–623}}
- "The Telephone Strike" (1919)
Personal life
Withington died in 1933, just before her 66th birthday, in Newburyport, Massachusetts.{{Cite news |date=1933-01-13 |title=Miss Anne Withington, Suffrage Leader, Dies |pages=2 |work=Rutland Daily Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116796452/miss-anne-withington-suffrage-leader/ |access-date=2023-01-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}
References
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