Post Office Department Receives Frances Willard Portrait

White Ribbon, Volume 47, Issue 4, 18 May 1941, Page 6

Post Office Department Receives Frances Willard Portrait

A portrait of Frances E. Willard now hangs in the Post Office building in Washington, 1).C., having been officially received by the department in recognition of the honour accorded this noted educator and humanitarian in the issuance last year of a postage stamp bearing her name and likeness. Miss Willard’s portrait is added to others, on the walls of that building, of those distinguished Americans who have been similarly honoured by the publication of a postage stamp. The portrait was the gift of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the presentation ceremony in the offices of the Third Assistant Postmaster General brought together prominent women of various organisations and movements in which Miss Willard was a vital influence during her busy life. Describing the ceremony in an almost-column-long article under large headlines, the Washington “Evening Star” said, in part:

“The presentation was made by Mrs. Ida B. Wise Smith, president of the National W.C.T.U., in the presence of other W.C.T.U. officers and leaders of other women’s organisations in which Miss Willard played a prominent part during her notable career. “Accepting the gift on behalf of the Postmaster General, Ramsey S. Black, Third Assistant Postmaster General, assured the gathering that the portrait will be exhibited in a prominent place in the department and said: ‘lt will serve as a reminder of the high esteem in which we all hold her memory/ “W.C.T.U. Commended. " ‘Your group is to be commended for its thoughtfulness and interest in acquiring this picture and presenting it to the department/ Mr. Black said, ‘and it occurs to me that this portrait will make a fine companion for the picture of the famous bust of Susan B. Anthony, which was presented to the department some time ago after issuance of a postage stamp in her honour/ “Speakers participating in the ceremony paid tribute to many accomplishments of Miss Willard, who was described by Mrs. Smith as ‘preeminently a mover of movements. “M rs. Margaret C. Munns, treasurer of the National and World’s W.C.T.U., said Miss Willard’s interests and sympathies were world-wide. Organised mother love’ was the w’ay the noted leader liked to describe the World’s W.C.T.U., which she founded in 18KJ, Mrs. Munns said. “Work in Education Praised. “Mrs. Lucy Milligan, president of the National Council of W’omen, said Miss Willard was a pioneer in the organisation of almost every woman’s group, and Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr., president general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of which Miss Willard was a charter member, said she was ‘progressive—almost radical—in her pioneering in education.’ “Miss Chari Ormond Williams, field secretary of the National Education Association, pointed out that Miss

Willard was president of the Woman’s College at Evanston, Illinois, the first school to offer degrees to women, and served as the first dean of women when the school was merged with Northwestern University. Others who spoke w’ere Mrs. La Fell Dickinson, vice-president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs; Roy North, Deputy Third A>sistant Postmaster General; and Mrs. Richard Meadows, district secretary of the Youth’s Temperance Council of the W.C.T.U., who unveiled the portrait.’’ As she drew the beautiful silken flag from off the portrait, Mrs. Meadows pointed out the breadth of Miss Willard’s vision and activities, saying: “Frances E. Willard was a teacher not only in the schoolroom but also in the larger school of life; not only of the textl>ook but also of character. W e like to recall her beautiful words to us, ‘Womanliness first; afterward what you will.’ For the young people of the Youth’s Temperance Council of the Woman’s Christian Temperance l nion, it is my honour, indeed, to revcil the face of this lovely character —Frances Elizabeth Willard, teacher, organiser, author, great citizen, Christian patriot.” Representing the N.E.A. While Miss W illard’s leadership in a variety of movements for individual development and for human welfare has been officially recognised and memorialised around the world, it was in tribute chiefly to her contributions in the educational field that the postage stamp was issued last year hv lier Government. Very fittingly, the National Education Association had a prominent part in the j resentation ceremony and, as noted above, it w*as Miss Chari Ormond Williams, nationally known director of field service for the N.E.A., who eulogised that phase of Miss Willard’s varied career, saying: “More than half a century ago—in a country where, though labeled ‘Land of the Free,’ those of the feminine sex still spoke in public only under the greatest odds and bad no voice in their Government; where one travelled only short distances and with many hardships—here one small, attractive woman, always immaculately clothed in a wasp-waisted dress with leg-o’-mutten sleeves, was making an average of a speech a day, in one night stands, touching every city or town of anv size in the nation. Moreover, she was urging, social and economic reforms tha* are only now finding footholds in our Government. In a voice of belllike timbre, heard not only in this country but abroad, she spoke in behalf of temperance and urged ‘a living wage; an eight-hour day; courts of conciliation and arbitration, and justice as opposed to greed/ “This woman was Frances E. Willard, successful teacher and daughter of a teacher; a woman who has been honoured equally with men by the men of our nation’s Government and who, in 1939, the centennial of her birth, received world-wide acclaim. “Frances E. Willard was fitted for

great accomplishments, physically and men tally, by the life of a pioneer daughter. She was the great-grand-child of one of the founders of Concord and the daughter of strongminded. intellectual parents, who, while Frances was still a child, took their ihildren in a prairie schooner through the wilderness from New York State to Rock River in Wisconsin. There, besieged by prairie fires, storms, cold, they were nevertheless a valiant, cheerful family, and Frances lived an unusually happy childhood, full of duties and dreams of serv icc. Not Too Daring for Frances. “Advanced education for women was new and daring, but not too daring for this courageous, ambitious young girl. Inspired by the example of her mother who had been a teacher at fifteen, Frances won degrees which included, besides study abroad, an A.B. from what is now Northwestern l niversity, a Master’s degree from Syracuse University, and a Doctor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan. “She became the first woman president of a college granting degrees to women, and when that college merged with Northwestern University, she was its first Dean of Women. As a teacher, she was far in advance of her time, feeling that her work was no; alone in her schoolroom but that the world was her domain. Into her school work she introduced debates, games, walks, fireside talks, parties, and teacher-quizzes, and received the eulogy that ‘the puj iis had never had so unusual and popular a teacher.’ “In 1873 Miss Willard received two letters in the same mail, one offering her the principalship of a school at a large salary and the other asking her to become president of the Chicago branch of the W.C.T.U. with no salary. She chose the latter, later becoming National President of the W.C.T.I and, over a period of twelve years, not even a Congressman made an average of a speech a day. as she did. Said Edward Everett Hale: ‘Her annual messages to her constituency were better worth reading than the messages of the President of the United States for the same time.’ “Thus to-day I count it a great privilege to be here with this group, representing a score of the great women’s organisations of the country, to pay a tribute to one of the outstanding leaders of the profession of teaching. Her life is a challenge to teachers at all times, and particularly in the dark and uncertain era in which we do our w’ork in 1941. “Our country has long recognised her worth, for when she died, all the flags from our Atlantic to our Parih ' coast were at half-staff. In the Capital at Washington, the state of Illinois has placed a statue of her, the only woman to be so honoured, and she is one of the most loved women listed in th roll of the Hall of Fame. In Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt’s estimation: ‘There has never been a woman leader in this country greater than nor perhaps so great as Frances Willard.”’ —“Union Signal."