Emily Bissell
{{Short description|American activist (1861–1948)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Emily Perkins Bissell
| image = Emily Bissell.jpg
| imagesize =
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| caption = Bissell in 1907
| pseudonym = Priscilla Leonard
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1861|05|31}}
| birth_place = Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date|1948|3|8}}
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| occupation = Writer and charitable worker
| language = English
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Emily Perkins Bissell (May 31, 1861 – March 8, 1948) was an American social worker and activist, best remembered for introducing Christmas Seals to the United States.{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,930409,00.html |title=Medicine: Christmas Seals |magazine=Time |date=December 7, 1931}}
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, she made a name for herself at a young age as the founder of that city's first public kindergarten and for her efforts to introduce child labor laws in that state. In 1883, she founded an organization, now known as the West End Neighborhood House that originally provided social services to Wilmington's immigrant Irish and German families. Bissell wrote under the pseudonym Priscilla Leonard.{{cite book|title=Title Women reading Shakespeare, 1660–1900: an anthology of criticism|first1=Ann|last1=Thompson|first2=Sasha|last2=Roberts|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-7190-4704-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRkNAQAAIAAJ}}
Anti-suffragism
Bissell was closely identified with the anti-suffragist movement.{{cite web
|url=http://www.hsd.org/Women_AntiSuffragist_Bissell.htm
|title=Emily P. Bissell, 1861–1948
|publisher=Historical Society of Delaware
|access-date=2010-10-03
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813202611/http://www.hsd.org/Women_AntiSuffragist_Bissell.htm
|archive-date=2010-08-13
}}
She wrote "The vote is part of man's work. Ballot-box, cartridge box, jury box, sentry box all go together in his part of life. Women cannot step in and take the responsibilities and duties of voting with assuming his place very largely".{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4sqiGdY0zDkC&pg=PA106
|page=106
|title=Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation
|author=Marjorie Spruill Wheeler
|publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press
|year=1995
|isbn=0-87049-837-1}}
In 1896 Bissell published an essay called "The Mistaken Vocation of Shakespeare's Heroines", taking the form of a report of a lecture to suffragettes. The purported speaker launches an attack on the Elizabethan playwright Shakespeare for placing his female characters in unsuitable situations, where they are not allowed to demonstrate their true abilities. For example, instead of having Ophelia as his wife, Hamlet would have been much better served by the more forceful Lady Macbeth, while Macbeth himself would have been better served by Portia.{{cite book
|page=233
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRkNAQAAIAAJ&dq=The+Mistaken+Vocation+of+Shakespeare%27s+Heroines&pg=PA233
|title=Women Reading Shakespeare, 1660–1900: An Anthology of Criticism
|author1=Ann Thompson |author2=Sasha Roberts |publisher=Manchester University Press ND
|year=1997
|isbn=0-7190-4704-8}}
The audience greets her attack on Shakespeare with delight, ending up shouting "Down with Shakespeare!"{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=983sMnQCnC0C&dq=The+Mistaken+Vocation+of+Shakespeare%27s+Heroines&pg=PA63
|page=63
|title=Shakespeare's Comedies of Love: Essays in Honour of Alexander Leggatt
|author1=Richard Paul Knowles |author2=Karen Bamford |author3=Alexander Leggatt |publisher=University of Toronto Press
|year=2008
|isbn=978-0-8020-3953-8}}
The spoof was supposed to show that it was absurd for women to seek careers.{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knYtCu3aSRoC&dq=%22The+Mistaken+Vocation+of+Shakespeare%27s+Heroines%22&pg=PA24
|page=24
|title=Giants of the Past: Popular Fictions and the Idea of Evolution
|author=Lisa Hopkins
|publisher=Bucknell University Press
|year=2004
|isbn=0-8387-5576-3}}
In 1900, she testified before the United States Senate Committee on Woman's Suffrage, arguing that women had no place in politics.{{Cite web|last=Boylan|first=Anne M.|date=Summer 2019|title=Delaware Women's Suffrage Timeline|url=https://my.lwv.org/sites/default/files/leagues/wysiwyg/%5Bcurrent-user%3Aog-user-node%3A1%3Atitle%5D/suffrage_timeline_delaware.pdf|access-date=18 November 2020|website=Delaware Historical Society|publisher=League of Women Voters}} In March 1903 she addressed a packed meeting in Concord, New Hampshire speaking against a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would strike out the word "male" from the suffrage clause. The amendment failed to pass.{{cite book
|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30051/30051-h/30051-h.htm
|title=The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI
|editor=Ida Husted Harper
|date=September 21, 2009
|access-date=2010-10-05}}
Christmas seals
Several years later, in 1907, she was drawn to the cause of helping people with tuberculosis (TB). She had already heard of an idea in Denmark in which people attached a special stamp to their mail, the proceeds of which would go to fight the disease, and decided to introduce the same idea in Delaware. Her goal was to raise $300 for a local sanitarium, using a bright red stamp she designed herself, and convinced local post offices to sell them for just 1 cent. This way, she believed, even the poorest people could help in the fight against TB.
Though the idea failed at first, Bissell was able to gain enough publicity from a Philadelphia newspaper to make $3,000 for the National Tuberculosis Association, ten times the amount she originally hoped to get. People were intrigued by the idea of Christmas seals, and the following year, Howard Pyle, a notable illustrator from Wilmington, donated the design of the second stamp.
Bissell spent the remainder of her life promoting Christmas stamps and helping to eliminate tuberculosis.
Death and legacy
File:Emily Bissell, 15c, 1980 issue.jpg in honor of Emily Bissell]]
She died on March 8, 1948. An abandoned public hospital outside Wilmington bears her name. In 1980, on the 119th anniversary of her birth, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 15 cent stamp in her honor.
See also
- Leigh Mitchell Hodges
- Einar Holbøll, — Founder of the world's first Christmas seals
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite encyclopaedia |last=Lewis |first=W. David |editor-last=James |editor-first=Edward T. |editor-last2=James |editor-first2=Janet Wilson |editor2-link=Janet Wilson James |editor-last3=Boyer |editor-first3=Paul S. |editor3-link=Paul S. Boyer |editor4=Radcliffe College |editor4-link=Radcliffe College |article=BISSELL, Emily Perkins |article-url=https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:457607836$210i |encyclopaedia=Notable American women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary |volume=1, A–F |url=https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:457607836$5i |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |publication-place=Cambridge, Mass. |year=1971 |isbn=978-1-84972-271-1 |oclc=221275644 |pages=152–153}}
External links
- {{YouTube|id=Fh9Zu6LM6W0|time=4m59s|Charles Lindbergh in Wilmington, Delaware (1927)}} shows Bissell presenting a packet of Christmas Seals to Lindbergh. This was also documented by a photograph: {{cite web |author=Sanborn Studio |title=Bissell presentinon to Lindbergh |website=digital.dehistory.org |url=https://digital.dehistory.org/lindbergh-charles-october-22-1927 |date=October 22, 1927 |access-date=2025-06-08}}
{{Hall of Fame of Delaware Women}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bissell, Emily}}
Category:Activists from Wilmington, Delaware
Category:American anti-suffragists
Category:American Lung Association