Gertrude Foster Brown

Gertrude Foster was born on July 29, 1867, in Morrison, Illinois, to William Charles Foster and Lydia Anne Drake.{{cite web|url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00164|title=Brown, Gertrude Foster, 1867-1956. Additional papers of Gertrude Foster Brown, 1732-1956 (inclusive), 1815-1956 (bulk): A Finding Aid|publisher=|access-date=2016-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703032533/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00164|archive-date=2018-07-03|url-status=dead}}

Foster studied piano at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She finished a four-year course in two years, graduating in August 1885. After teaching for a year in Dayton, Ohio, she went to Europe, studying with Xaver Scharwenka in Berlin and Élie-Miriam Delaborde in Paris between 1886 and 1889.

On January 25, 1889, Foster made her professional debut as a pianist with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin. By July 1889, she had returned to the United States,{{cite news|title=Miss Foster returns from Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=psYxAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA109|accessdate=1 November 2016|work=The Musical Courier|issue=493|date=July 31, 1889}} joining the Chicago Conservatory of Music, where she taught and performed until 1896.{{cite journal|title=Brown, Gertrude Foster|journal=Who's Who in New York|date=1918|publisher=Who's who publications, Incorporated|volume=7|page=134|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0sWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA134|accessdate=31 October 2016}}

In August 1893 Gertrude Foster married Arthur Raymond Brown (1865-1944), an artist and advertising executive who worked for the Chicago Evening Post. In 1896, they moved to New York City, where Raymond Brown worked for the Hawley Advertising Company. He was known as an illustrator, author and art editor. Gertrude Foster Brown continued to play and performed lecture recitals on Richard Wagner and his operas.

Gertrude Foster Brown organized a Woman Suffrage Study Club in New York in 1909,{{cite web|title=Woman Suffrage Study Club|url=http://id.lib.harvard.edu/aleph/001387803/catalog|website=Harvard Library|accessdate=1 November 2016}} which later became part of Carrie Chapman Catt's Woman Suffrage Party. Brown attended the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) convention in 1910. She was elected president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association in 1913.{{cite book|last1=Hannan|first1=Caryn|last2=Herman|first2=Jennifer L.|title=Illinois biographical dictionary|date=2008|publisher=State History Publications|location=Hamburg, MI|isbn=978-1878592606|pages=95–96|edition=2008-2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AM4zQiGAxkC&pg=PA95|accessdate=1 November 2016}} Among her activities were the organization of suffrage parades in New York City.{{cite journal|title=Marching in the parade|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlc9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP22|page=24|journal=The Woman Voter|volume=8|issue=5|date=May 1917|last1 = Woolston|first1 = Florence|last2 = Beard|first2 = Mary Ritter}} How It Feels to Be the Husband of a Suffragette, which was published anonymously in 1915,{{cite journal|title=How it feels to be the husband of a suffragette|journal=Friends' Intelligencer|date=September 25, 1915|volume=72|page=622|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aILTAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA622|accessdate=2 November 2016}} has been attributed to her husband.{{cite web|title=The 1883 Imperial Flats -- Nos. 55-57 East 76th Street|url=http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-1883-imperial-flats-nos-55-57-east.html|website=Daytonian in Manhattan|date=2 April 2016 |accessdate=April 2, 2016}}{{cite book|last1=Chapman|first1=Mary|last2=Mills|first2=Angela|title=Treacherous texts : U.S. suffrage literature, 1846-1946|date=2011|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick, N.J.|isbn=978-0813549590|page=231|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iytwxk9q2wEC&pg=PA231}}

Brown was active in campaigning in New York for the passage of women's suffrage.{{cite news|title=Your Vote and How to Use It|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/78422272/|page=52|work=The Oregon Daily Journal|publisher=Portland, Oregon|date=March 17, 1918|quote="Your Vote and How to Use It is the title of the book by Mrs. Raymond Brown, published by the Harpers. Your Vote and How to Use It answers all the questions which women who are to use the vote for the first time are asking. Mrs. Raymond Brown is one of the most active and important woman suffrage leaders and is chairman of organisation of state forces of the New York state Woman Suffrage party."}}{{cite news|title=Fine lecture at suffrage meeting |url=http://news.hrvh.org/veridian/cgi-bin/senylrc?a=d&d=scarsdaleinquire19170314.2.8|accessdate=7 November 2016|work=Scarsdale Inquirer|agency=2-3|issue=11|date=14 March 1917}} Victory there on November 6, 1917, was an important step towards the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.{{cite book|last1=Goodier|first1=Susan|title=No Votes for Women : The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement.|date=2013|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana|isbn=978-0252078989|pages=71–72, 113–116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6hx17zZVU4C&pg=PA71|accessdate=1 November 2016}}{{cite book|last1=Harvey|first1=Anna L.|title=Votes without leverage : women in American electoral politics, 1920-1970|date=1998|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|location=Cambridge, MA.|isbn=0521597439|pages=75–77|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKGCbw5_P-wC&pg=PA77|accessdate=1 November 2016}}{{cite web|title=Women Win the Right to Vote in New York State|url=https://sites.newpaltz.edu/nyrediscovered/2013/11/06/women-win-the-right-to-vote-in-new-york-state/|website=New York Rediscovered|date=6 November 2013 |accessdate=7 November 2016}} Following the passage of women suffrage in New York State in 1917, and pending passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Brown wrote Your Vote and How to Use It.{{cite news|editor1-last=Blackwell|editor1-first=Alice Stone|title=Your vote and how to use it|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtMRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1134|accessdate=7 November 2016|work=The Woman Citizen|volume=3|page=1135|date=May 24, 1919}}{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Gertrude Foster|title=Your vote and how to use it|date=1918|publisher=Harper & Brothers|location=New York|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=National%20Suffrage;id=nyp.33433075931000;view=image;start=1;sz=10;page=root;size=100;seq=106;num=78;orient=0|page=78|accessdate=2 November 2016|quote="The National Amendment for Woman Suffrage: An amendment to the Federal Constitution is pending which provides that the right to vote shall not be denied on account of sex. While New York State has given the vote to its women, this permission does not extend beyond its borders."}} It was published in February 1918 by Harper & Brothers,{{rp|verso}} and was endorsed by the New York State Women Suffrage Party.{{rp|vi}} In it she encouraged New York women to be good citizens and exercise their new ability to vote. Dealing with civics "from the standpoint of the woman voter", women were encouraged to "regard their vote as a trust to be used not to advance partisan politics, but to further human welfare."{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Gertrude Foster|chapter=Preface|title=Your vote and how to use it|date=1918|publisher=Harper & Brothers|location=New York|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=encourage;id=nyp.33433075931000;view=image;start=1;sz=10;page=root;size=100;seq=25|page=xix|accessdate=2 November 2016}}

Your Vote and How to Use It was one of a number of "citizenship manuals" educating women in their new rights and responsibilities and encouraging them to take their new obligations seriously.{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Kathryn|title=The Education of the Woman Citizen, 1917-1918|date=2010|publisher=State University, Ohio LINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center|location=Bowling Green, Ohio|pages=2–4, 43–49|url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/bgsu1277150212/inline|accessdate=2 November 2016}} Some of its materials were also used as the basis of a correspondence course for women voters, distributed by the New York State Women Suffrage Party.{{cite journal|last1=Lima|first1=Agnes de|title=Book Reviews|journal=The Survey|date=July 13, 1918|volume=40|page=428|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6UqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA428|accessdate=7 November 2016}} The book itself was listed as suggested civics reading for Girl Guides who wanted to earn a Citizen's Badge, in the 1920 guides handbook Scouting for Girls.{{cite web|title=Girl Scouts and the Women's Movement|url=http://www.gsuniv.org/history/girl-scouts-and-the-womens-movement/|website=Girl Scouts University|accessdate=7 November 2016}}

File:Gertrude Foster Brown (1919).png

In 1918, when the suffrage movement organized the Women's Overseas Hospitals in France, Gertrude Foster Brown became Director-General,{{cite news|title=The Contributor's Column|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H59DAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA719|accessdate=31 October 2016|work=The Bookman|volume=55|page=719|publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company|date=1922}} serving in France.{{cite journal|title=CHEERFUL TO LAST WRITES THE SURGEON OF WINIFRED FAIRFAX WARDER. Comforting Letters Received by Parents Wrote Them Day Before She Died.|journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society|date=April 1919|volume=12|pages=101–103|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalishs12illiuoft/journalishs12illiuoft_djvu.txt|accessdate=31 October 2016}} Seventy-four women staff were sent over from the United States to the hospital.

Brown helped to found the National League of Women Voters, serving as chairperson of the group that drafted its organizational plan. "Simple, direct, workable, it blazed a wide trail free of difficulties."{{cite news|title=Board of the National League of Women Voters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtYRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PT818|accessdate=7 November 2016|work=The Woman Citizen|volume=4|issue=32|pages=919, 925|date=February 28, 1920|last1 = Blackwell|first1 = Alice Stone}} Brown was commended enthusiastically for her efforts.

She also was involved in the New York Woman's City Club. From 1921 to 1931, Brown was general manager of The Woman's Journal, renamed The Woman Citizen. Founded in 1870 by Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, the journal was published until 1931 and the Great Depression.

The Browns traveled in Europe and North Africa during the 1930s. Gertrude Foster Brown became a vocal supporter of the League of Nations.{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Gertrude Foster|title=A letter to the President|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IohLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA97|accessdate=31 October 2016|work=The Woman Citizen|pages=12–13|issue=6|date=July 30, 1921}} During World War II, she was active in the Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace. In 1945, she represented the committee at the founding United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, California.{{cite web|last1=Lanset|first1=Andy|title=Listen to a 101-Year-Old Clarion Call for Women's Suffrage Preserved in Shellac|url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/rare-call-womens-suffrage-new-york-preserved-shellac/|website=NYPR Archives and Preservation|date=March 8, 2016|accessdate=31 October 2016}}

Among her papers is an autobiographical account of her life, Suffrage and Music: My First Eighty Years.

The Browns had no children. Raymond Brown died on April 30, 1944, at their New York apartment at 1883 Imperial Flats—Nos. 55-57 East 76th Street. He had been nursed during his illness by his wife.

Gertrude continued to live in the apartment, and organized a chamber music group that played there. Gertrude died on March 1, 1956, in Westport, Connecticut.{{cite news|title=GERTRUDE BROWN, SUFFRAGIST, DIES; A Founder of Women Voters Unit Was Concert Pianist, Teacher and Editor Impetus to Efforts Studied Music in Europe|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/03/03/archives/gertrude-brown-suffragist-dies-a-founder-of-women-voters-unit-was.html|accessdate=31 October 2016|work=The New York Times|page=19|date=March 3, 1956}}

• History of feminism
• List of suffragists and suffragettes

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{{library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=61202932|lcheading=Brown, Gertrude Foster, 1867-1956}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180703032536/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00093 Brown, Gertrude Foster, 1867-1956. Papers of Gertrude Foster Brown, 1822-1978 (inclusive), 1910-1949 (bulk): A Finding Aid], Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180703032533/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00164 Brown, Gertrude Foster, 1867-1956. Additional papers of Gertrude Foster Brown, 1732-1956 (inclusive), 1815-1956 (bulk): A Finding Aid], Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
• [https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss190.html#list-StatesNY Suffrage Collection, 1851-2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130000140/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss190.html#list-StatesNY |date=2017-01-30 }}, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

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Category:1867 births

Category:1956 deaths

Category:People from Morrison, Illinois

Category:New England Conservatory alumni

Category:Roosevelt University faculty

Category:Suffragists from New York (state)

Category:American women's rights activists

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:National American Woman Suffrage Association activists

Category:Members of the League of Women Voters