Vira Boarman Whitehouse

Vira Boarman was born in Abingdon, Virginia, September 16, 1875, to Robert Boarman and Cornelia Terrell.{{cite book| title=Social register, New York |year=1915 |publisher=Social Register Association |page=713 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3EtIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA713 }}

She attended Newcomb College in New Orleans and was a member of Pi Beta Phi.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCnPAAAAMAAJ&q=Mrs.+J.+Norman+de+R.+Whitehouse&pg=PA309|title=The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi|date=1918|publisher=Pi Beta Phi Fraternity|language=en}}

She married New York stockbroker James Norman de Rapelye Whitehouse (1858–1949) on April 13, 1898. They had one child, Alice Whitehouse Harjes.

Whitehouse became interested in suffrage after the Woman suffrage parade of 1913 erupted into violence. She marched in the May 1913 suffrage parade in New York City and volunteered with the Women's Political Union after the parade. Six months later Whitehouse gave her first outdoor suffrage speech.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G0o4DwAAQBAJ&q=James+Norman+De+Rapelye+Whitehouse&pg=PT189|title=Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State|last1=Goodier|first1=Susan|last2=Pastorello|first2=Karen|date=2017-09-15|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9781501713194|language=en}}

She was chairman in 1913 of the publicity council of the Empire State Campaign Committee and in 1916 of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party (NYSWSP).

In May 1915, Whitehouse made cold calls to potential voters to ask their views on suffrage. This is one of the earliest examples of telephone polling.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3wrDwAAQBAJ&q=Eunice+Dana+Brannan&pg=PA134|title=Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites who Fought for Women's Right to Vote|last=Neuman|first=Johanna|date=2017-09-05|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9781479837069|language=en}}

Whitehouse led an incredibly successful fundraising campaign, making large donations herself and soliciting donations from New York's most prominent families.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5KIvDwAAQBAJ&q=vira+whitehouse+newcomb&pg=PA34|title=Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870–1967|last=Johnson|first=Joan Marie|date=2017-08-04|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=9781469634708|language=en}}

When New York State granted women the right to vote on November 6, 1917, Whitehouse was widely credited with the win.

Whitehouse's husband was a member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage,{{Cite web|url=https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/the-men-who-helped-get-women-the-vote|title=The Men Who Helped Get Women the Vote|website=THE GOTHAM CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY HISTORY|language=en|access-date=2018-03-16}} by July 1917 he was treasurer of the League.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HhHVDgAAQBAJ&q=James+Norman+De+Rapelye+Whitehouse&pg=PA213|title=The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote|last=Kroeger|first=Brooke|date=2017-05-11|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=9781438466293|language=en}}

In 1918, she became director of the Swiss office of the Committee on Public Information, where she worked closely with Rosika Schwimmer, the Hungarian ambassador to Switzerland, and one of the first female ambassadors in the world.Tibor Grant, "Against All Odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzherland, 1918." American Studies International, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2002: 34-51 This appointment was a direct result of her success in the suffrage movement. George Creel, head of the United States Committee on Public Information, had formerly been the publicity chair for the New York chapter of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. He explained Whitehouse's appointment as "Mrs. Whitehouse's job was to put America across in Switzerland the way she had put equal suffrage across in New York." Her main job in Switzerland was to provide accurate information to Swiss newspapers interested in American affairs without violating Switzerland's policy of neutrality.{{Cite journal|last=Glant|first=Tibor|date=February 2002|title=Against All Odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzerland, 1918|url=http://www.ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_3416.pdf|journal=American Studies International|volume=40|pages=34–51}} She held the position for eleven months, but only spent six months actively working in Switzerland. Nevertheless, her work was considered successful. Whitehouse reported her experiences in A Year as a Government Agent (1920).{{cite book| first1=Martin J.| last1=Manning| first2=Herbert| last2=Romerstein| title=Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda| location=Westport, CT| publisher=Greenwood Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-JjwDPcOLQC&q=Vira+Boarman+Whitehouse| pages=319–20| date=November 30, 2004| isbn=978-0313296055| access-date=2014-12-16}}

File:Vira Boarman Whitehouse 1921.png

In 1921, she bought the Buchan-Murphy Manufacturing Company, a leather business, renamed it the Whitehouse Leather Products Company, Inc., and reorganized it with herself as president and Ida Reid Blair as vice-president.{{cite news |author= |date=6 November 1930 |title=Mrs. John Blair Dies of Pneumonia |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/11/06/92106544.html?pageNumber=25 |work=The New York Times |location=New York City |publisher=The New York Times |access-date=9 Feb 2025}} She managed the company for eight years, reducing the work week from 48 hours to 44 hours, among other changes.

In 1925, she was elected a member of the Democratic County Committee from Manhattan's 15th Assembly District.

The following year, she became Chairman of the Independent Women's Committee for Judge Wagner.{{cite news |title=She Sees Wadsworth Bringing the Party to 'the Brink of Ruin.' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/10/20/archives/mrs-gabriel-swerves-to-side-of-wagner-republican-she-sees-wadsworth.html |work=The New York Times |date=October 20, 1926 |access-date=2010-07-24}} She sold her leather company before the stock market crash of 1929.

She died at her home in New York City on April 11, 1957.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Whitehouse, Suffrage Leader. State Party Chairman Who Was Credited With Winning The Vote In 1917 Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/04/12/archives/mrs-whitehouse-suffrage-leader-state-party-chairman-who-was.html |work=The New York Times |date=April 12, 1957 |access-date=2010-07-24 |quote=Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, a leader in the woman's suffrage movement in New York State, died yesterday after a long illness in her home at 39 East Seventy-ninth Street. She was 82 years old. ... |first1=David |last1=Berns}}

Her papers are archived at the Harvard University Library.

File:Dec 1913 Mrs Norman Whitehouse making street speech for suffrage.jpg|Mrs. Norman Whitehouse making a street speech for suffrage, December 1913.

File:Whitehouse 4787373518 ef1b008da7 o.jpg|Mr. and Mrs. Norman DeR. Whitehouse in 1914

{{Reflist}}

• Tibor Grant, "Against All Odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzherland, 1918." American Studies International, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2002: 34-51

{{commons category|Vira Boarman Whitehouse}}

• [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00966 Papers, 1889-1957] [http://radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library Schlesinger Library], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

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Category:1875 births

Category:1957 deaths

Category:American birth control activists

Category:Suffragists from New York (state)

Category:Boarman family

sisters

Category:United States government officials of World War I