Ida Craft
{{Short description|American suffragist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ida Craft
| image = IdaCraft-pre1912.jpeg
| alt = A middle-aged white woman, dark hair in an updo, wearing a white lacy blouse with a high collar
| caption = Ida Craft
| birth_name =
| birth_date = December 25, 1860
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York
| death_date = {{death date and age|1947|9|14|1860|mf=y}}
| death_place = Rockland County, New York
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Suffragist, social activist, prohibitionist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Ida Augusta Craft (December 25, 1860 – September 14, 1947) was an American suffragist known for her participation in suffrage hikes.
Early life
Craft was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1860, the daughter of John Craft and Eleanor Voorhies Perlee Craft. Her father was a tailor.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Ida A. Craft, Brooklyn's Suffrage Pioneer |url=https://kccartmuseum.org/ida-a-craft |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Kingsborough Art Museum |language=en-US}}{{cite web |last1=O'Donnell |first1=Rhianna |title=Biographical Sketch of Ida A. Craft |url=https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009656485 |access-date=9 July 2019 |website=Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920 |publisher=Alexander Street Documents}}
Activism
Craft was an officer of the Bedford Political Equality League in 1897, president of the Kings County Political Equality League and belonged to the Brooklyn chapter of the Woman Suffrage Party.{{Cite news |date=1910-03-06 |title=Women Hold Conference on Suffrage |pages=10 |work=The Standard Union |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115324079/women-hold-conference-on-suffrage/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |via=Newspapers.com}} She attended National Woman Suffrage Association's 1900 convention in Minneapolis as a delegate. She campaigned for suffrage in Ohio in 1912.{{Cite news |date=1912-09-07 |title=Why the Suffragists Did Not Win in Ohio |pages=22 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115324218/why-the-suffragists-did-not-win-in-ohio/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Known as the "Colonel", because she assisted the "General", Rosalie Gardiner Jones,{{Cite web |title=Ida Augusta Craft (The Colonel) |url=https://www.womenandthevotenys.com/1suffragists-vetted/ida-augusta-craft-(the-colonel) |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=WATVNYS (Women and the Vote, New York State) |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Johnston |first=Peg |date=April 12, 2020 |title=Colonel Ida Craft |url=https://elisabethfreeman.org/colonel-ida-craft/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Elisabeth Freeman |language=en-US}} Craft took a visible leadership role in the 1912–1914 Suffrage Hikes.{{cite news |date=February 25, 1913 |title=Col. Craft Is Angry. Snub For Gen. Jones. Talks of Rushing About Country at Six-Day-Bicycle-Race Speed and Says She Doesn't Like It. |work=New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/02/25/100389424.pdf |access-date=2009-08-14 |quote=}}{{cite news |date=February 23, 1913 |title=Col. Craft Walks On, But Hikers Protest. Her Feet Swollen So Badly That She Falls Behind Companions. Says 'I Am Going Through.' |work=New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/02/23/100255653.pdf |access-date=2009-07-29 |quote=}} She was arrested during the hike to Boston with Elisabeth Freeman and Vera Winthrop; they were briefly detained in Hartford, for breaking laws around the use of a vehicle for advertising and the distribution of flyers.{{Cite news |date=1913-08-20 |title=Law Grips Ida A. Craft |pages=14 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115324831/law-grips-ida-a-craft/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |via=Newspapers.com}}
After the suffrage hikes, she campaigned for women's suffrage in Montana,{{Cite news |date=1917-04-12 |title=Eulogizes Miss Rankin; Ida A. Craft Thanks God for Such a Woman |pages=14 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115325045/eulogizes-miss-rankin-ida-a-craft/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |via=Newspapers.com}} Nevada, Nebraska, Alaska, and Canada, and was a delegate to the International Alliance of Women convention in 1922, when it was held in Rome.{{Cite news |date=1947-09-16 |title=Ida A. Craft, Boro Pioneer in Women's Suffrage, Dies |pages=9 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115324539/ida-a-craft-boro-pioneer-in-womens/ |access-date=2022-12-28}}
Craft was an active member of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).{{Cite news |date=1902-09-18 |title=The Kings County W.C.T.U. Meet |pages=12 |work=The Standard Union |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115323806/the-kings-county-wctu-meet/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was elected as a Delegate at Large to the Constitutional Convention in New York in 1914, representing the Prohibition Party.{{cite web |title=Ida Craft |url=http://www.herhatwasinthering.org/biography.php?id=7204 |access-date=5 April 2019 |website=Her Hat Was In The Ring |archive-date=10 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210110556/http://www.herhatwasinthering.org/biography.php?id=7204 |url-status=dead }} File:Jessie Belle Hardy Stubbs MacKaye, Ida Craft, and Rosalie Jones.jpg, Miss Ida Craft, Miss Rosalie Jones circa 1912-1913]]
Personal life and legacy
Craft inherited a "large sum" when her mother died in 1913.{{Cite news |date=1913-11-22 |title=Large Sum for Ida A. Craft |pages=43 |work=The Chat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115323909/large-sum-for-ida-a-craft/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |via=Newspapers.com}} She died at home in Pearl River, Rockland County in 1947, at the age of 86. Her grave is in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. In 2021, the Kingsborough Art Museum created a digital exhibition about Craft's activism.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category-inline|Ida Craft}}
{{Suffrage}}
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