Grace Goulder Izant
{{short description|American journalist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Grace Goulder Izant
| image = GraceGoulder1918.png
| alt = a black-and-white head-and-shoulders portrait of young white woman wearing a hat, a fur-collared coat, a white shirt, and a bow tie
| caption = Grace Goulder, from a 1918 publication
| birth_name = Grace Goulder
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1893|03|27}}
| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, United States
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|11|17|1893|03|27}}
| death_place = Akron, Ohio, United States
| other_names =
| occupation = Writer, journalist
| years_active = 1919-1984
| known_for = Ohio history, biography of John D. Rockefeller
| notable_works =
}}
Grace Goulder Izant (1893–1984) was an Ohio writer and historian who wrote for the Plain Dealer Magazine and published several books on Ohio history. She was the first Ohioan ever honored by the American Association for State and Local History, which recognized her work in 1962. She won the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature in 1965 and was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1982.
Biography
Grace Goulder was born on March 27, 1893, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Marian (née Clements) and Charles Goulder. After graduating from Vassar College in 1914,{{sfn|The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|1997}} she began working as a society reporter for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.{{sfn|Vince|Izant|2001|p=vii}} When World War I broke out, Goulder became the head of national publicity for the YWCA,{{sfn|The Tennessean|1918|p=6}} traveling through France, Germany and England helping relocating war brides with information about their new homes in the United States.{{sfn|The Salina Daily Union|1919|p=7}} After her 1919 return to the US, Goulder married Robert Izant, who would become vice president of Central National Bank in Cleveland. In 1924 the couple moved to Hudson and began their family.{{sfn|Dooley|2008}} File:GRACE GOULDER IZANT HOUSE, HUDSON, SUMMIT COUNTY.jpg
In 1937, for the centennial of Hudson's village incorporation Goulder-Izant wrote an article which was purchased by the Plain Dealer, and resumed her career.{{sfn|Vince|Izant|2001|p=vii}} The article was the first of what would become a regular weekly Sunday column "Ohio Scenes and Citizens", which featuring themes on Ohio history, people and places. The column ran in the Sunday Magazine until 1969.{{sfn|The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|1997}} She and her husband traveled the backwoods of Ohio collecting materials for the stories, which she often photographed.{{sfn|Vince|Izant|2001|pp=vii-viii}} Her articles won many awards and honors, including recognition in 1949 from{{Clarify|date=June 2016}} the Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society and the Ohio Sesquicentennial Committee in 1953. That same year, she published her first book{{sfn|Dooley|2008}} This Is Ohio, which contained brief sketches of each of the 88 counties in the state, its famous residents, and its folklore.{{sfn|Kirkus Reviews|1953}}
In 1962, Goulder-Izant became the first Ohioan ever recognized by the American Association for State and Local History.{{sfn|Dooley|2008}} Two years later she published her second book, Ohio Scenes and Citizens, which collected some of her best magazine pieces.{{sfn|The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|1997}} It featured biographical sketches of famous Ohioans or people who had Ohio ties and included Paul Laurence Dunbar, Thomas Edison, Marshall Field, James Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Philip Sheridan and Woodrow Wilson, among others.{{sfn|Kirkus Reviews|1964}} The work was recognized and well received, winning Goulder-Izant the 1965 Cleveland Arts Prize. After retiring from publishing weekly columns at the age of 76,{{sfn|Dooley|2008}} Goulder-Izant spent her time researching the Rockefeller Family Archives at the Western Reserve Historical Society and in 1972, published a well-received biography of John D. Rockefeller.{{sfn|Rose|2006|p=2}} The book, John D. Rockefeller, The Cleveland Years chronicled the early life of the oil magnate{{sfn|The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|1997}} telling for the first time how he created the enterprise that would be known as Standard Oil.{{sfn|Dooley|2008}}
Goulder-Izant died on November 17, 1984, in Akron, Ohio.{{sfn|Northwest Arkansas Times|1984|p=20}} Shortly after her death, Kent State University Press published her final work, Hudson's Heritage: A Chronicle of the Founding and the Flowering of the Village of Hudson, Ohio, which used biographical sketches to relay the history of the village where Goulder-Izant had lived for 60 years.{{sfn|Dooley|2008}}
Legacy
In her quest to write the stories behind the history of Ohio, Goulder-Izant collected and preserved many documents important to the history of the state. Besides collecting documents on buildings and monuments, she collected the papers of David Hudson and John Brown.{{sfn|Ohio Women's Hall of Fame|1982}} She served as a trustee of the Western Reserve Historical Society,{{sfn|The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|1997}} receiving the Ohio Governor's Award for her preservation work. She was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame{{sfn|Ohio Women's Hall of Fame|1982}} in 1982.
References
=Citations=
{{Reflist|30em}}
=Sources=
{{refbegin|30em}}
- {{cite web|last1=Dooley|first1=Dennis|title=Grace Goulder, Author, 1893–1984|url=http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/grace_goulder.html|publisher=Cleveland Arts Prize|access-date=8 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121215643/http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/grace_goulder.html|archive-date=21 November 2008|location=Cleveland, Ohio|date=November 21, 2008}}
- {{cite speech|last=Rose|first=Kenneth W.|title=John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Forest Hill Housing Development in Cleveland, Ohio|access-date=8 April 2016|url=http://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/pdf/roseforesthills.pdf|date=April 22, 2006|event=Past, Present, Future lecture series at the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio|publisher=Rockefeller Archive Center|location=Sleepy Hollow, New York}}
- {{cite book|last1=Vince|first1=Thomas L.|last2=Izant|first2=Grace Goulder|title=Hudson's Heritage: A Chronicle of the Founding and the Flowering of the Village of Hudson, Ohio|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vsq23ormmBkC&pg=PR7|year=2001|publisher=Kent State University Press|location=Kent, Ohio|isbn=978-0-87338-719-4|chapter=Preface}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|1997}}|author=|title=Goulder-Izant, Grace|url=https://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=GG1|access-date=6 April 2016|website=Case Western Reserve University|publisher=The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|date=July 16, 1997|location=Cleveland, Ohio}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Ohio Women's Hall of Fame|1982}}|author=|title=Grace Gouler (sic)Izant|url=http://www.odjfs.state.oh.us/women/halloffame/bio.asp?ID=142|access-date=8 April 2016|website=Ohio Department of Job and Family Services|publisher=Ohio Women's Hall of Fame|date=1982|location=Columbus, Ohio}}
- {{cite news|ref={{harvid|Northwest Arkansas Times|1984}}|author=|title=Ohio Historian Dies at 91|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/profile/susun-wilkinson/clipnumber/29414/|access-date=6 April 2016|newspaper=Northwest Arkansas Times|date=November 20, 1984|location=Fayetteville, Arkansas|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
- {{cite magazine|ref={{harvid|Kirkus Reviews|1964}}|author=|title=Ohio Scenes and Citizens|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/grace-goulder/ohio-scenes-and-citizens/|magazine=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=8 April 2016|location=New York, New York|date=May 12, 1964}}
- {{cite magazine|ref={{harvid|Kirkus Reviews|1953}}|author=|title=This is Ohio|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/grace-goulder-izant/this-is-ohio/|magazine=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=8 April 2016|location=New York, New York|date=April 20, 1953}}
- {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Tennessean|1918}}|author=|title=Women War Workers Meeting at Atlanta|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4878214/women_war_workers_meeting_at_atlanta/|access-date=8 April 2016|newspaper=The Tennessean|date=August 28, 1918|location=Nashville, Tennessee|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
- {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Salina Daily Union|1919}}|author=|title=Y.W.C.A. Workers Live in Prison Cell|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4878196/ywca_workers_live_in_prison_cell/|access-date=8 April 2016|publisher=The Salina Daily Union|date=May 29, 1919|location=Salina, Kansas|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
{{refend}}
{{Ohio Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Izant, Grace Goulder}}
Category:Writers from Cleveland
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:Vassar College alumni
Category:American women historians
Category:Journalists from Ohio
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:20th-century American journalists