Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: MC 955

Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939

Overview

Suffrage memorabilia, organizational records, writings, and some personal papers of Mary H. Page, founder of the Brookline Equal Suffrage Association and Massachusetts suffrage activist.

Dates

  • Creation: 1876-1939

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Mary H. Page is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

5.29 linear feet ((2 + 1/2 file boxes, 1 carton, 1 folio+ box, 1 supersize box) plus 1 oversize folder, 1 supersize folder, 6 photograph folders, 1 folio photograph folder)

These papers of Mary H. Page are almost entirely related to her activism in the fight for women's suffrage in Massachusetts and beyond; a small amount of Page family correspondence and other material is also present. The collection includes Brookline Equal Suffrage Association administrative records and ephemera: a notebook containing constitution and early member lists and financial records; printed yearbooks with officer's names and activities undertaken; fliers, meeting invitations, material from a 1903 theatrical production of two plays written by George Hyde Page; also an engraved gavel. Also included are a manuscript record book of the Committee for Work, which was based in Boston and raised money to support the suffrage movement in Oklahoma and elsewhere; and programs from the Discussion Club of Brookline, which sponsored lecturers such as Booker T. Washington and Jane Addams.

In addition to organizational records, the collection includes several of Page's suffrage-related writings and speeches, both handwritten and published. Also included is material pertaining to the British suffrage campaign, including letters to Page from Emmeline Pankhurst and photographs of Pankhurst from her 1909 visit to Boston; a "Votes for Women" scarf and ribbons with the British suffrage colors green, gold, and purple; postcards of and articles about the British suffragists. Page's extensive involvement in the Massachusetts suffrage campaign is documented mainly through ephemera, much of it from the 1915 referendum on women suffrage: fliers and invitations to mass gatherings and talks, sashes worn in parades, posters, buttons, a fan, and a tin bluebird. Material from the wider United States suffrage campaign includes Page's delegate ribbons from National American Woman Suffrage Association conferences, Ohio campaign buttons, and National American Woman Suffrage Association printed material and buttons. A copy of B.M. Boyé's 1913 Votes for Women poster, backed with canvas and hung on rods, is also included.

Page family material includes George Hyde Page's writings, including a typescript on the benefits of suffrage for his sons and a playscript entitled "Queen Draga"; photographs, including an album of Mary H. Page, her daughter Anne and granddaughter Barbara in Florida; and some correspondence from Page family members to family friend Alice M. Dickey, who lived near the Pages' home in New Hampshire.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Hutcheson was born in Columbus, Ohio, on March 16, 1860, the daughter of Lucretia Deshler and Joseph Hutcheson. The family moved to Europe in 1869, where they lived for five years until Joseph Hutcheson, a young banker in ill health, died; Lucretia Hutcheson died a few years later. Mary Hutcheson then moved to Boston to attend classes in biology and chemistry as a special student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1890, Mary Hutcheson married George Hyde Page (1860-1923); they lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, until 1918, and also had a summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire. They had four children: Hutcheson (1891-1985), Anne (1892-1969), Katharine (1896-1991), and Richmond (1900-1965).

Mary Hutcheson Page was active in local politics, and in the fight for woman suffrage. She was president of the Brookline Association, founded a discussion club that became the Brookline Equal Suffrage Association, and served as chairman of the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. In addition, Page played a major role in founding the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government. As Chair of Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government's Executive Board and later its president, she was known for her fund-raising skills and ability to convince individual women to join the suffrage cause. Page's interest in suffrage extended to the European campaigns; in addition to making several trips there, she corresponded with several English suffragists and entertained Emmeline Pankhurst during her 1909 visit to Massachusetts. In 1912, Page and Gertrude Halladay Leonard helped organize the suffrage campaign in Ohio. Page's daughters were both active suffragists and her husband George Hyde Page wrote suffrage plays, poetry, and a prayer. Page retired from suffrage work in 1918 and the Pages moved to California, where George Hyde Page died in 1923. Mary Hutcheson Page then returned to Massachusetts, where she died in 1940.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession number: 2013-M157

These papers of Mary H. Page were given to the Schlesinger Library by Talbot Page in September 2013.

Related Material:

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see Mary H. Page Papers in the Woman's Rights Collection (M-133).

SEPARATION RECORD

Donors: Talbot Page

Accession number: 2013-M157

Processed by: Jenny Gotwals

The following items have been removed from the collection and transferred to the Schlesinger Library Periodicals Collection:

  1. McClure's, January and March 1913
  2. American Journal of Sociology, March 1896
  3. Democratic Digest, October 1936
  4. Atlantic Monthly, April 1910

Processing Information

Processed: July 2018

By: Jenny Gotwals

The Schlesinger Library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.  Finding aids may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

General processing procedures in place at the Library include the following:  books (when not heavily annotated) by and about the collection's creator and on subjects which fall within the Library's collecting area are removed and cataloged separately with information about their provenance; titles of serials removed and cataloged separately are listed in the inventory.

Title
Page, Mary H. (Mary Hutcheson), 1860-1940. Papers of Mary H. Page, 1876-1939: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
Sponsor
Processing of this collection was made possible by the Alice Jeannette Ward Fund.
EAD ID
sch01608

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

Contact:
3 James St.
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
617-495-8540