Alice Jane Gray Perkins | |
---|---|
Born | 28 August 1865 Schenectady |
Died | 14 February 1948 New York |
Pen name | Jane Gray Perkins |
Occupation | teacher and writer |
Nationality | American |
Alice Jane Gray Perkins or Jane Gray Perkins (28 August 1865 – 14 February 1948) was an American writer and teacher. She was known as a suffragist in the UK as well as in America.
Perkins was born in Schenectady in 1865 to Anne Dunbar Potts Perkins. Her father Maurice Perkins was the Professor of Chemistry at Union College from 1865, so she was brought up on the college campus. Her mother is remembered for her letters which record the college's history. [1] Alice was one of three children. She traveled to Europe, but she started her interest in education at her home town by opening a school in 1895 for children. The school was short lived as she went to study further at Barnard College to increase her expertise in science and maths. Her family's funding resulted in a master's degree for Perkins in 1899. [2]
Alice continued to live in New York where she taught history at the Nightingale-Bamford School. In 1907 she published The Life of the Honourable Mrs. Norton' using the name "Jane Grey Perkins". [2]
Eagle House near Bath in Somerset had become an important refuge for suffragettes who had been released from prison after hunger strikes. Mary Blathwayt's parents planted trees there between April 1909 and July 1911 to commemorate the achievements of suffragettes including Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, Charlotte Despard, Millicent Fawcett and Lady Lytton. [3] The trees were known as "Annie's Arboreatum" after Annie Kenney. [4] [5] There was also a "Pankhurst Pond" within the grounds. [6]
Perkins was invited to Eagle House in 1910 and she recorded her visit by planting a Christmas Holly bush. A plaque was made and her photograph was recorded by Colonel Linley Blathwayt on 12 September wearing a brooch of the Women's Social and Political Union. [7]
Perkins co-wrote "Frances Wright: Free Enquirer" with Theresa Wolfson who was prominent in the American workers education movement. Their book was published in 1939. [2] Perkins died in New York in 1948.
Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was an Australian suffragist and social reformer. She was one of four female candidates at the 1903 federal election, the first at which women were eligible to stand.
Adela Constantia Mary Walsh was a British born suffragette who worked as a political organiser for the WSPU in Scotland. In 1914 she moved to Australia where she continued her activism and was co-founder of both the Communist Party of Australia and the Australia First Movement.
Ann "Annie" Kenney was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie Baldock. Kenney attracted the attention of the press and public in 1905 when she and Christabel Pankhurst were imprisoned for several days for assault and obstruction related to the questioning of Sir Edward Grey at a Liberal rally in Manchester on the issue of votes for women. The incident is credited with inaugurating a new phase in the struggle for women's suffrage in the UK with the adoption of militant tactics. Annie had friendships with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence, Mary Blathwayt, Clara Codd, Adela Pankhurst, and Christabel Pankhurst.
Theresa Wolfson (1897–1972) was an American labor economist and educator. Wolfson is best remembered as the education director of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union during the second half of the 1920s and as a leader of the workers education movement during the 1930s.
Aeta Adelaide Lamb was one of the longest serving organizers in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the leading militant organization campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
Theresa Garnett was a British suffragette. She was a serial protester who sometimes went by the name 'Annie O'Sullivan', was jailed and then still refused to cooperate. She assaulted Winston Churchill while carrying a whip. She retired from her militancy after the suffragette movement decided to commit arson as part of its protests. She was honorary editor of a women's right's magazine in 1960.
Mary Blathwayt was a British feminist, suffragette and social reformer. She lived at Eagle House in Somerset. This house became known as the "Suffragette's Rest" and contained a memorial to the protests of 60 suffragists and suffragettes. The memorial was bulldozed in the 1960s.
Jessica "Jessie" Kenney (1887–1985) was an English suffragette who was jailed for assaulting the Prime Minister and Home Secretary in a protest to gain suffrage for women in the UK. Details of a bombing campaign to support their cause were discovered by the authorities in her flat when Kenney was sent abroad to convalesce. She later trained as a wireless operator but worked as a stewardess.
Vera Wentworth was a British suffragette, who notably door-stepped and then assaulted the Prime Minister on two occasions. She was incarcerated for the cause and was force fed, after which she wrote "Three Months in Holloway"
Eagle House is a Grade II* listed building in Batheaston, Somerset, near Bath. Before World War I the house had extensive grounds.
Clara Margaret Codd was a British writer, suffragette, socialist feminist, and theosophist. She went to jail for the suffragettes and then devoted her life to the Theosophical Society.
Clara Evelyn Mordan was a British suffragist and benefactor to the Women's Social and Political Union and St Hugh's College, Oxford. Tuberculosis obliged her to fight for women's rights by proxy. She hoped that her "last bed will be a coffin some woman has earned her living by making".
Helen Kirkpatrick Watts was a militant British suffragette from Nottingham.
Florence Eliza Haig (1856–1952) was a Scottish artist and suffragette who was decorated for imprisonments and hunger strikes.
Maud Joachim was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, one of the groups of suffragettes that fought for women to get the right to vote in the United Kingdom. She was jailed several times for her protests. Joachim was one of the first suffragettes to go on hunger strike when imprisoned, a protest at not being recognised as political prisoners.
Gladice Georgina Keevil was a British suffragette who served as head of the Midlands office of the Women's Social and Political Union between 1908 and 1910.
Emily Marion Blathwayt was a British suffragette and mother of Mary Blathwayt. She and her husband, Linley, a retired Colonel from the Indian Army lived at Eagle House in Somerset and established a welcome and garden summerhouse for women in the movement, that became known as the "Suffragette's Rest".
Lillian Dove-Willcox (1875–1963) was a British suffragette who was a member of Emmeline Pankhurst's personal bodyguard.
Caroline "Kitty" Kenney (1880–1952) was a sister of Annie Kenney, one of the most well-known British suffragettes to go on hunger strike, for whom the Blathwayts planted commemorative trees in their Eagle House garden in Batheaston, Somerset. Another sister, Jessie, was abroad when her involvement in explosives was discovered by the authorities.
Margaret Hewitt (1800s–1900s) was a British suffragette employed by the Women's Social and Political Union. She was involved in protests in 1909 and arrested. She was chosen to visit the Eagle House aka "Suffragette's Rest" where a plaque commemorated her planting holly bush in the arboretum for leading suffragettes.
Media related to Alice Jane Gray Perkins at Wikimedia Commons