Guide to the Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) Papers, 1871-1998

Best known for her leadership (1879-1898) of the influential Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Willard also supported and often spearheaded a wide variety of social reforms, including woman suffrage, economic equality, and fair labor laws. Willard gained an international reputation through her speeches and publications. She was the first woman to be honored with a statue in the U.S Capitol building, and her Evanston home was one of the first house museums to in the country.

Biographical information about Willard is extensive. For an excellent overview of her life, see the entry “Frances E. Willard” by Carolyn DeSwarte Gifford in:

Women Building Chicago, 1790-1990, A Biographical Dictionary (Indiana University Press, 2001).

See also:

Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855-1896 (University of Illinois Press, 1995), edited by Gifford.

Mary Earhart, Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944).

• Names
  • Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.)
  • Woman's Christian Temperance Union
  • Willard, Frances E. (Frances Elizabeth), 1839-1898

Separated from the University Archives' biographical files (Accession #74-70).

Margaret Faverty and Mary Ann Webber; January 14, 1986.

None.

The Frances E. Willard papers are arranged in one half-size box and date between 1871 and 1978. General biographical materials including articles and pamphlets relating to Willard's work on behalf of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Northwestern University; brief biographies written by Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana (1905), and Gertrude Stevens Leavitt (1908); and other related items are arranged in the first folder of the series. Following that are clippings and excerpts from newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals.

A few materials relating to the 1898 presentation to Northwestern University of a marble sculpture of Frances Willard are foldered together. The sculpture was executed by the noted American artist Lorado Taft.

A small amount of correspondence, both incoming and outgoing and dating from 1872, 1874-1876, 1886-1887, 1893, and 1895-1898, documents Willard's concerns regarding temperance and higher education for women. Of particular interest is Willard's lengthy letter of June 16, 1874, to the Northwestern University faculty criticizing changes in the University's rules of conduct for female students. Correspondence is arranged in chronological order.

A few articles, a temperance pamphlet and address, and excerpts from some of Willard's other writings are arranged in one folder chronologically by date of publication. Finally, an 1884 temperance petition, presented by Willard to the national convention of the Prohibition Party, is foldered at the end of the series.

Addition, Box 1

The addition consists of four folders containing items related to the centenary of Frances Willard's birth, recent news clippings, and correspondence with Northwestern University and the University Archives regarding Frances Willard.

The items documenting the 1939 centenary of Frances Willard's birth include articles, a cloth souvenir map showing the location of all Willard memorials across the United States, “The Uncrowned Queen” (a “dramatic monolog” by Jane Good of the Northwestern University School of Speech), and a first-day cover with the five-cent Frances Willard commemorative postage stamp (issued March 1940).

Undated items consist of a puppet play, “Born to Lead,” by Helen Elliott (published by the Signal Press) and a description of the Frances Willard Memorial Library at the W.C.T.U. headquarters in Evanston.

Some biographical information and news clippings were incorporated into the original series. Added to the materials in Folder 4 (“Willard Sculpture by Lorado Taft, 1898”) were an engraved invitation to the formal presentation of the bust (1898) and a letter from Taft to the Lunt Library staff regarding the loan of the sculpture for an exhibit at the Art Institute (1899).