Pacific Coast Women's Press Association (PCWPA; September 27, 1890 - 1941) was a press organization for women located on the West Coast of the United States. Discussions were not permitted regarding politics, religion, or reform. The members of the association took on causes related to certain public improvements in the way of roads, streets, parks, libraries, village improvement societies, free exhibits of county resources, the suppression of criminal details of sensational cases in newspapers, the suppression of criminal advertising, and school development. To facilitate the work, the association issued printed monographs.
Until 1890, working newspaper women and women authors located along the U.S. Pacific coast lacked protection, benefit and advantages associated with unity. In other parts of the United States, these associations had been established since 1880, most of the earlier ones being organized for purely social purposes.[1]
After nearly three years of planning, 150 invitations were sent out to newspaper women and authors in good standing on the Pacific coast, asking them to meet in San Francisco, California on September 27, 1890 at the home of Emelie Tracy Y. Swett. Fifty women came to the meeting, but everyone invited sent letters of encouragement and pledged herself to support the movement.[1]
History
A Constitution and By-Laws of the New England Woman's Press Association were adopted.[2] The primary purpose of the PCWPA was to improve the women's relationships through the frequent interchange of ideas and methods.[3]
The first year was spent in active organization. A library of several hundred books was accumulated and catalogued, and at the close of the year, the Association numbered 125 active members.[4]
The members took on causes related to public improvements in the way of roads, streets, parks, libraries, village improvement societies, free exhibits of county resources, the suppression of criminal details of sensational cases in newspapers, the suppression of criminal advertising, and the development of kindergartens. To facilitate their work, the Association issued printed monographs. The first monograph issued was on the topic of "Country Roads and City Streets", written by Mary Lynde Hoffman, a large property owner. More than 500 notices were sent to the Association concerning this essay alone.[3]
In its first three years, the only source of income of the Association was through membership and initiation fees and from contributions. In time, the association hoped to erect a building in San Francisco, the rentals of which would suffice to pay the running expenses of the Association, as well as sick benefits, when required.[5]
More than 500 volumes were contributed to the Association's library, besides files of many of the leading dailies, weeklies, monthlies. The Association wanted first to accumulate complete sets of the published works of members, then works by Pacific coast writers, then reference books, and finally, rare and standard books. The organization's librarian was a member of the American Library Association.[5]
The writing of the general newspaper worker was for the most part anonymous in that era. Therefore, the Association did not feel that its ranks were at a disadvantage when compared with those of other press associations. the PCWPA's members was so scattered over a large territory, that it was unable to show many influential Western newspaper connections. On the other hand, the Western style of reporting had become popular, with nearly all of the writers retaining from one to six connections with influential Eastern and British periodicals.[6] As a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the International League of Press Clubs and the Woman's National Press Association, the PCWPA was abreast with the spirit of organization, at the same time confident that responsible individualism was its strength.[7]
There was also Isabel Raymond of the Santa Cruz Surf. Of literary distinction was Josephine White Bates (d. 1934). Among the members of the Association engaged in editorial work were Genevieve Lucile Browne of the Californian, Louise E. Francis, editor of the Castroville Enterprise, Maggie Downing Brainard of the Pacific Tree and Vine, San Jose, California and Mrs. L. C. P. Haskins of Washington.[10] Among those members who were regular contributors to Eastern and local journals, writing upon California subjects, were a number of Pacific Coast writers by adoption. Helen Gregory-Flesher, a regular contributor to the American Press Association, to the local press, to New York magazines and an occasional contributor to the Arena, was a Canadian by birth and education. Mary F. McRoberts, an Englishwoman, well known in political and educational circles in England, and a contributor to its press from California, was another newcomer to the Pacific Coast, though a resident of California in earlier times.[10]Emma Russell Endres, another English woman, and correspondent to the London Times, was a Californian by her adoption of the State as her home, and a busy contributor to the English and American press. Other members whose largest contribution to the press was for Eastern publications were Carrie Wake Morgan, Alice Cary Waterman, Clara Spalding Brown, and Dorothea Lummis.[7]
Kate Douglas Wiggin was well known as a kindergarten worker and author. Virna Woods gained her first literary reputation in the field of descriptive verse. Jeanne C. Smith Carr (initial First Vice-President of the PCWPA Executive Board), was a constant writer for the general press, well-known in Southern California. Mary Catherine McIntire Pacheco, a Kentucky playwright, was one of California's first published women authors.[11]
Other women who were doing important literary work included: Madge Morris Wagner, Mrs. S. L. Darling, Emily S. Loud, Mary V. T. Lawrence, Florence Hardeman Miller, Laura Young Pinney, Mrs. Ella M. Sexton, Mrs. Emma Seckle Marshall, Mrs. Virginia S. Hilliard, Rose L. Bushnell Donnelly, Amelia Truesdell, Willina Knight Stringer, Dr. Minora Kibbe, Ruth Comfort Mitchell, Lydia H. Morrow, Mrs. James Neall, Elizabeth Murray Newman, Laura Lyon White, S. M. Farnham, Mary Fairbrother, Julia P. Foster, Sophie Gardiner, Augusta Friedrich Von Eichen, E. Or. Lightner, De Neal Morgan, artist and illustrator, Mary Tracy Mott, Emeline M. North Whitcomb, Laura Bride Powers, of the San Francisco Call; Kate Elliott, Mrs. N. H. Martin, and Miss Martin McKim.[11]
Mrs. I. Lowenberg, novelist and clubwoman, was a past President PCWPA.[12] Mrs. P. T. Dickinson (Hester A. Benedict) was a poet and past President PCWPA.[13]Abbie E. Krebs (past President PCWPA) had been a newspaper writer, and for some years edited the column of the San Francisco Chronicle. Sara E. Reamer was the first librarian and historian of the Association. Her early life in California was spent among the mines, during which she was a frequent contributor to the press on subjects of general interest.[14]
The Impress
"The Impress," originally The Bulletin,[15] was a monthly paper and the organ of the PCWPA, was founded October 6, 1893 and published weekly. Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was the editor, Helen Stuart Campbell was the associate. [16] Paul Tyner was the publisher. It was designed to present, from week to week, in crisp, critical paragraphs, the world's news from the Pacific coast standpoint. Questions of the day were discussed occasionally. Reviews of current literature, dramatic, artistic and musical criticism, and articles on art and education, with poetry, fiction, and humor, were among the features of the journal. While not exclusively a woman's paper, The Impress fully recognized the importance of the great movement of the century, and gave it space and attention. The PCWPA retained a page. The Women's Congress Association was also represented, as well as the Parliament of Women of Southern California, and other similar organizations. The Impress was valued as a home paper. "The Art of Living" was an important department of the journal conducted by Campbell.[17]
Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper was an American educator, author, evangelist, philanthropist, and civic activist. She is remember as a religious teacher and her efforts to increase the wide interest in kindergarten work. Cooper served as first president of the International Kindergarten Union, president of the National Kindergarten Union, president and vice-president of the Woman's Press Association, president of the Woman's Suffrage Association, and president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Emelie Tracy Young Swett was an American author, editor, poet and translator. She wrote both prose and verse, and in her literary work was often employed by publishers to translate French and German articles and books. She was at one time employed as the private secretary of a publishing house, and in this capacity she developed executive abilities. In 1889, she married John W. Parkhurst, an employee in the Bank of California. Swett contributed largely to the magazines and papers of the Pacific Coast. Her literary work included translations from Greek, French and German and some finished poems of high merit. She dramatized Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona. She founded the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association. She supported suffrage. For a year before her death, at the age of 29, she was assistant editor of the Californian Illustrated Magazine. Swett died in 1892.
Carrie Stevens Walter was an American educator and poet who was a co-founder of the Sempervirens Club, a California environmental organization. She was heavily involved in the purchase of the Santa Cruz Big Basin by the State. She first visited the Big Basin as one of a sizable party. Her second trip was made to Santa Cruz, Pescadero, and La Honda, California. Both trips were written up in an instructive way. Her expenses and that of her party on that trip were paid by a few residents of Santa Cruz. Beyond expenses, she received no compensation.
The New England Woman's Press Association (NEWPA) was founded by six Boston newspaper women in 1885 and incorporated in 1890. By the turn of the century it had over 150 members. NEWPA sought not only to bring female colleagues together and further their careers in a male-dominated field, but to use the power of the press for the good of society. The group raised funds for charity and supported women's suffrage and other political causes.
The Woman's Press Club of New York City (WPCNYC) was an American professional association for women journalists and authors. Located at 126 East 23rd Street, in Manhattan, the organization was founded by Jane Cunningham Croly in Manhattan in November 1889, incorporated in 1919, and dissolved on 8 March 1980.
Eliza Douglas Keith was an American educator, author, and journalist; she was also a social reformer and activist.
Nellie Blessing Eyster was an American journalist, writer, lecturer, and social reformer. She was a grand-niece of Barbara Fritchie.
Mary Lynde Craig was an American writer, teacher, and attorney. She moved to California in 1859. She owned property in San Francisco, and was an activist for women's property rights. Craig served as Associate Editor of the Redlands, California The Citrograph. In 1893, she was one of four women practicing law in California. In 1891, she gave the "Address of Weicome" at the organization of Sequoia Chapter, San Francisco. While attending the National Editorial Association at Chicago with her husband, in May 1893, she also had opportunity to speak to other large audiences—once at the Auditorium, once at the Art Palace, and once at the Woman's Building. She served as president of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association and historian of the Hastings Law column.
Mary Grace Edholm was an American reformer and journalist. She worked as a journalist for twenty years.
Alice Moore McComas was an American author, editor, lecturer and reformer. She was a pioneer suffragist in California and served as president of the Los Angeles Equal Suffrage Association. During the various suffrage campaigns, McComas contributed articles to over seventy newspapers and magazines, and she was well known throughout the west as an educator and lecturer. She was accredited with being the first woman to conduct a department for women in a daily paper in California, and the first woman to address a state Republican ratification meeting. She was one of the earliest organizers of the Free Kindergarten Association and of clubs for working women, and was prominent in many movements for civic welfare. She was Associate Editor of The Household Journal of California and author of several books, among them The Women of the Canal Zone and Under the Peppers. McComas contributed travel sketches to many magazines. She died in 1919.
Emily Pitts Stevens was an American educator, temperance activist, and early San Francisco suffragist. She was the editor and publisher of The Pioneer, the first women’s suffrage journal in the West Coast of the United States, and was a co-founder of the California Woman Suffrage Association. In addition, she was a businesswoman, teacher, administrator, lecturer, and a founder of women's organizations. In San Francisco, Stevens started an evening school for working girls, and instituted the Seaman's League. After the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in California, she labored on its behalf. She also contributed to the columns of various newspapers, and lectured. Stevens died in 1906.
Rowena Granice Steele was an American performer, author of poetry and novels, as well as a newspaper journalist, editor, and publisher. The first novel written by a woman in California was Steele's, The Victims of Fate, a work of fiction loosely based on David C. Broderick, the preface stating: "Some of the incidents of this little story, are real facts. I had the honor of being acquainted with the hero, from my earliest childhood. First as a lad of little promise, although to use a quaint expression, King-Bee among his boy companions. After, as a young, terprising aspirant for political fame. Last, as the finished gentleman and a nation's pride." Steele was well known for the entertainments which she provided during the early days of the California Gold Rush, where, with her son, George, she acted out scenes from Shakespeare and bits of comedy. Steele died in 1901.
Dorothea Rhodes Lummis Moore was an American physician, writer, newspaper editor, and activist. Although a successful student of music in the New England Conservatory of Music, in Boston, she entered the medical school of Boston University in 1881, and graduated with honors in 1884. In 1880, she married Charles Fletcher Lummis, and in 1885, moved to Los Angeles, California, where she began practicing medicine. She worked as dramatic editor, musical editor, and critic at the Los Angeles Times. She was instrumental in the formation of a humane society which was brought about through her observations of the neglect and cruelty to the children of the poor, and Mexican families, visited in her practice; and the establishment of the California system of juvenile courts.
Mary C. F. Hall-Wood was a 19th-century American poet, editor, and author. Her Sea Leaves was published in 1887. She was the editor of the Santa Barbara, California Index, later renamed The Independent. She was a committee member of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.
Mary Agnes Bishop was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and newspaper publisher. She was an accomplished linguist, and throughout her life, continued to study languages with various teachers.
Grace Hibbard was an American author and poet of the long nineteenth century. Hibbard had a large following among the women of California. Among her books were California Sunshine, California Violets, and Wild Roses of California. Some of her best-known poems included "The Engineer's Daughter" and "Waiting for Colin". Her short story, "Bummer and Lazarus", set in San Francisco, was translated into the German and printed in one of the leading papers published in the German language.
Hester A. Benedict was an American poet and writer. She had a literary reputation in the East before her removal to California where she served as president of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association in San Francisco. Dickinson's works included, Vesta (1872), Fagots (1895), and Songs En Route (1911). After her second marriage, she retained "Hester A. Benedict" as a literary name, and also used it as a pen name in her second book, but not for the third one.
Mrs. I. Lowenberg was an American author, clubwoman, reformer, and socialite. Born in Alabama and educated in Missouri, she removed to San Francisco, California in 1860 and spent the rest of her life there. Lowenberg was the founder of San Francisco's Philomath Club, the first club in the world composed of Jewish women with a regularly adopted constitution. Her essays focused on various topics, especially on peace and arbitration. All three of her novels advocated for various types of reform.
Abbie E. Krebs-Wilkins was an American businesswoman. Arriving in California as a young child, she contributed to the success of business, personal, literary and political affairs in San Francisco. After the death of her father, Capt. Jacob Green Jackson, Krebs-Wilkins became the president and active manager of Caspar Lumber Company, in Mendocino County. She also served as president of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association. Krebs-Wilkins was actively affiliated with the Order of the Eastern Star for more than half a century. A wealthy woman, she was a patron of the arts and a philanthropist.
Louise E. Francis was an American journalist. She served as editor of the California Daily Report and the Castroville Enterprise, as well as special correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Detroit News-Tribune, The Grand Rapids Press, and San Francisco Chronicle. She was a member of the Alabama and California Press associations, and recording secretary of the National Editorial Association for 1892 and 1893. She was also associated with the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC). Francis was the first woman editor and owner of a daily newspaper in California.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain:Californian Publishing Company (1893). The Californian. Vol.4 (Public domained.). San Francisco: Californian Publishing Company.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain:Everyday Housekeeping (1894). Everyday Housekeeping. Vol.1, Issues 3-5 (Public domained.). Salem, Massachusetts: Everyday Housekeeping Co.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain:Pacific Unitarian Conference (1893). The Pacific Unitarian (Public domained.). Pacific Unitarian Conference.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain:Pinney, Laura Young; Eichen, Augusta Friedrich Van; Mitchell, Ruth Comfort (1905). Pacific Coast Women's Press Association (ed.). La copa de oro (Public domained.). Press of George Spaulding & Company. p.113.
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