Edith Anna Ellis
{{Short description|American women's rights activist}}
{{Other people|Edith Ellis}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edith Anna Ellis
| image = Edith Ellis.png
| image_size = 200px
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1868|03|01|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Varna, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1940|07|31|1868|03|01|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Binghamton, New York, U.S.
| signature = Edith Ellis signature.png
}}
Edith Anna Ellis (March 1, 1868{{Cite book|last=Sanford|first=Carlton E|title=Thomas Sanford: the emigrant to New England ; ancestry, life and descendants, 1632-4.|date=1974|publisher=Tuttle Co.|pages=763|language=en|oclc=987916333}} – July 31, 1940) was an American women's rights activist, writer, politician, and farmer from Tompkins County, New York. She ran for elected office with the slogan "Insist that no man shall occupy a position that a woman can fill",{{cite web |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/suffrage/exhibition/nextsteps/index.html#modalClosed |title=Woman Suffrage at Cornell |last1=Engst |first1=Elaine |last2=Keating |first2=Eileen |date=2018 |website=Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections |publisher=Cornell University Library |access-date=March 6, 2020}} a quote from a War Industries Board mandate,{{cite news |author= |title=Work or fight to be made stern reality |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/586119390/ |work=Kingfisher Daily Free Press |location=Kingfisher, Oklahoma |date=September 23, 1918 |access-date=March 7, 2020 }} and other wartime slogans contextualized to support women in politics.
Life
Edith Anna Ellis was born on March 1, 1868, in Varna, New York,{{cite news |author= |title=Death Takes Mrs. Ellis, Party Leader |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/255358200/ |work=The Ithaca Journal |location=Ithaca, NY |date=July 31, 1940 }} near the "Ellis Hollow" area of Dryden that is named for her family.{{cite book |last1=Kammen |first1=Carol |last2=Engst |first2=Elaine D. |date=2019 |title=Achieving Beulah Land |location=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Library |page=131{{en dash}}133 |isbn=9780935995244}} She earned a Bachelor of Letters degree from Cornell University{{citation | title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada| editor1-first=John William | editor1-last=Leonard | publisher=American Commonwealth Company | year=1914 | page=273 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COsLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA273 }} in 1890, then worked in the Cornell University Library.
File:Ellis Collection.jpg, Cornell University]]
She became the first woman to run for office in Tompkins County{{cite news |last=Beduya |first=Jose |date=November 6, 2018 |title=Exhibit commemorates women's right to vote |url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/11/exhibit-commemorates-womens-right-vote |work=Cornell Chronicle |location=Ithaca, New York |access-date=March 6, 2020 }} when she ran for county clerk in 1918, shortly after women were enfranchised in New York State. She argued that government should be turned over to women because men were needed to fight World War I, saying it was "necessary to release the available manpower" of politicians into the war effort, and to "substitute woman power" into government.
She lost the 1918 election, but became a delegate to the 1918 Democratic State Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was active in the Democratic party for the rest of her life, serving on the New York State Democratic Committee.
Ellis was active in New York state women's clubs and supported women's suffrage. She wrote for newspapers and magazines.
Ellis endowed "a fund for reading matter of general cultural interest" at the New York State College of Agriculture.{{cite news |author= |title=New Cornell Library Has Open House Today |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/279473881/ |work=Elmira Sunday Telegram |location=Elmira, New York |date=November 16, 1952 |access-date=March 6, 2020 }} Today her endowment funds the Ellis Collection of books, intended to encourage reading about farming and the life sciences for fun and personal development, rather than for coursework. The collection sits near the entryway of Mann Library on the Cornell University campus.{{cite web |url=https://mannlib.cornell.edu/use/collections/print |title=Print Collections |author= |website=Albert R. Mann Library |publisher=March 7, 2020}}
Ellis died on July 31, 1940, and was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca. At the time of her death, she was the only woman ever appointed as a party chair in her Assembly district.
Personal life
References
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Category:People from Tompkins County, New York
Category:American women's rights activists
Category:Women in New York (state) politics
Category:New York (state) Democrats
Category:Librarians from New York (state)
Category:Cornell University alumni