Josephine Jewell Dodge
Josephine Jewell Dodge | |
|---|---|
 Dodge, c. 1915 | |
| Born | Josephine Marshall Jewell February 11, 1855 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | March 6, 1928 (aged 73) Cannes, France |
| Resting place | Weatogue Cemetery, Simsbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Vassar College (attended 1872–1873; no degree) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1888–1918 |
| Known for |
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| Spouse | Arthur Murray Dodge (m. 1875; died 1894) |
| Children | 8 (5 sons surviving) |
| Parents |
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Josephine Marshall Jewell Dodge (born February 11, 1855 – March 6, 1928) was an American childcare reformer and leading anti-suffrage activist. She founded New York City’s Jewell Day Nursery in 1888, showcased it at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and helped create both city and national federations of day nurseries. From 1911 to 1917 she served as founding president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and edited its newspaper, The Woman’s Protest. The Hartford-born daughter of Connecticut governor Marshall Jewell, she married copper heir Arthur Murray Dodge, was widowed in 1894, and died in Cannes, France; her 1867–68 letters from Saint Petersburg are held by Vassar College.
Early life
[edit]Born as Josephine Marshall Jewell in Hartford, Connecticut on February 11, 1855. She was the eldest child of Marshall Jewell, who later served as the Governor of Connecticut (1869–1873) and United States Postmaster General (1874–1876), among other government posts. Jewell withdrew from Vassar College without a degree in 1873 to accompany her father to Saint Petersburg, Russia, when he was serving as a diplomat there.[1]
Jewell married Arthur Murray Dodge in 1875; he was the son of William E. Dodge, a well-known copper merchant, Congressman, and philanthropist associated with Phelps Dodge Company.[2] The couple had eight children, six sons and two daughters. Both daughters died in infancy, and one son, Pliny, died in 1889 at the age of five; their sons were Marshall, Murray, A. Douglas, Geoffrey, and Percival.[3][4]
Jewell Day Nursery
[edit]
Dodge sponsored the Virginia Day Nursery in New York City, a facility intended to provide child care to working mothers on the Lower East Side.[5] Her program developed in 1888 to become the Jewell Day Nursery, which had a greater educational component.[6] Dodge demonstrated her methods at the Columbian Exposition in 1893,[7] and in 1895, she was founder and first president of the Association of Day Nurseries of New York City in 1895, and was part of the National Federation of Day Nurseries in 1898.[1]
Anti-suffrage activism
[edit]In 1911, she helped found and became president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage,[8] a post she held for six years; she also edited the organization's publication, Woman's Protest. She was the target of a verbal attack at a 1915 "riot" between suffrage and anti-suffrage activists in Washington DC.[9]
That same year, speaking in New Jersey, Dodge argued that most women lacked the practical experience necessary for sound governance, stating, “She is worthily employed in other departments of life, and the vote will not help her fulfill her obligations therein.”[10] She also denied claims that anti-suffrage groups were funded by liquor interests seeking to block Prohibition.[11]
Some historians assume that anti-suffragists had a conservative social agenda, their motivation was actually often different. Dodge and others were of the perspective that there is danger in adding to the number of politically uninformed voters, which was already seen as a problem. She also believed that if women became involved in the world of partisan politics, they would lose some of their moral authority.[12]
Death and legacy
[edit]Dodge died in Cannes, France, on March 6 1928, and was interred beside her husband in the Dodge family plot at Weatogue Cemetery in Simsbury, Connecticut.[13] A substantial collection of her letters from the Jewell family’s 1867–1868 residence in Saint Petersburg is preserved in Vassar College’s Archives & Special Collections Library,[14] while her nieces by marriage included philanthropist Grace Hoadley Dodge and pro-suffrage society hostess Mary Melissa Hoadley Dodge, daughters of William E. Dodge Jr.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Josephine Marshall Jewell Dodge" in Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women, 1607–1950, A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Harvard University Press 1971): 492-493. ISBN 9780674627345
- ^ "A Social Event: Marriage of Miss Josephine M. Jewell and Mr. Arthur M. Dodge" New York Times (October 7, 1875): 1.
- ^ "Notable Birthdays Today" Asheville Citizen-Times (February 11, 1917): 4. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Murray W. Dodge, Banking Executive" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (December 7, 1937): 11. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Susan Goodier, No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement (University of Illinois Press 2013): 30. ISBN 9780252094675
- ^ L. P. S., "The Late Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge" New York Times (March 16, 1928): 16.
- ^ "Child Care" in Alice O'Connor, ed., Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy (ABC-CLIO 2004): 152. ISBN 9781576075975
- ^ "Low Cut Gowns and High Morals Suffrage and Sex; Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge Tells Women Decent Dress is More Important than Votes" The Courier (May 11, 1913): 1. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Near Riot When Suffragists and Antis Meet at Hearing Before Democratic Committee" Washington Herald (December 8, 1915): 1. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Woman Suffrage Battle Opens in New Jersey As Antis Unlimber Big Guns; Monster Mass Meeting Held in Trenton" Chatham Press (May 29, 1915): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Mrs. Dodge Charges A Poison-Pen Plot; Declares Suffragists, with Endless Chain Postals, Are Repeating Liquor Attacks" New York Times (October 30, 1916): 9.
- ^ Joe C. Miller: "Never a Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don't Say about Women's Suffrage." The History Teacher, Spring 2015, p. 447-453. [1]
- ^ "Mrs Arthur M. Dodge, Former Josephine Jewell, Foe of Woman Suffrage, Dies in France" New York Times (March 7, 1928): 25.
- ^ Guide to the Josephine Jewell Dodge Papers, 1873-1874 Archived 2016-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, Archives and Special Collections, Vassar College.
External links
[edit]- Photograph of children at the Jewell Day Nursery in New York City, 1999, in the New York Public Library Digital Collections.