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OASIS: Online Archival Search Information System
Questions or Comments Copyright Statement
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OASIS: Online Archival Search Information System | Frames Version
Questions or Comments Copyright Statement |
© 1980 Radcliffe College
Call No.: MC 308/M-80
Note: CLOSED. USE MICROFILM M-80.
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: INEZ MILHOLLAND, 1886-1916
Title: Papers, 1906-1916
Quantity: 2 1/2 file boxes, 1 oversize folder, 3 reels microfilm (M-80)
Abstract: Correspondence, speeches, etc., of Inez Milholland, suffragist, reformer, and lawyer.
Inez Milholland was a lawyer specializing in criminal and divorce practice; she zealously advocated a variety of reform causes, including women's suffrage, abolition of the death penalty, and the rights of working people. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she graduated from Vassar College in 1909, and received an LL.B. degree from New York University in 1912. In July 1913, she married Eugen Jan Boissevain, a New York importer, of Dutch citizenship. The resulting change in her citizenship status threatened to exclude IM from law practice, and she quickly became involved in attempts to repeal the offending legislation.Proclaiming herself a Socialist, IM joined the Women's Trade Union League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Fabian Society of England. In 1915, as a war correspondent in Italy, she wrote a series of pacifist articles and as a result was expelled by the Italian government late that summer.In 1916, IM took part in a garment workers' strike and was instrumental in securing a last-minute reprieve for Charles Stielow, a West Shelby, New York farmer accused of murder and sentenced to be executed in the electric chair.Concurrently, IM was becoming increasingly active in the women's suffrage movement. She joined the Congressional Union, and, though suffering from pernicious anemia, undertook a speaking tour of the West in support of suffrage. In September she collapsed during a speech in Los Angeles and died ten weeks later, on November 25, 1916. A memorial service was held by her suffrage associates in Statuary Hall, Washington D.C., on Christmas Day, 1916. She was buried at her parents' estate in Essex County, New York.Some years after IM's death, Eugen Jan Boissevain married Edna St. Vincent Millay. This collection was subsequently passed on to Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister, Norma Millay, from whom it was purchased by the Schlesinger Library.
These papers include personal and business correspondence, speeches, articles, class notes, and newsclippings. The personal letters are of particular interest and make up the first half of the collection. They illuminate, often in intimate detail, IM's marriage to EJB and her friendships with Max Eastman, Irving E. Robertson, Upton Sinclair, and others.The remainder of the collection reflects IM's work as a lawyer and her involvement in various reform causes: the citizenship question, the abolition of capital punishment, the related issues of prison reform and legal aid, and woman's suffrage. The newsclippings at the end of the collection are arranged in an order parallel to the professional papers. A few are about IM in particular, but the majority were collected by her and deal with her interests and only indirectly with her work..
MC 308 M-80 #1-11 Reel 1 #12-28 Reel 2 #29-50 Reel 3
- 1. In organizing the material the processor added page numbers and dates, where necessary, to the correspondence, articles, and newsclippings. Page numbers and other information added by the processor are in square brackets.
- 2. Fragments of IM essays, articles, and speeches in folders #30, 32, and 36, were numbered and filmed consecutively. The reader should be aware, however, that the text is not always consecutive.
- 3. The collection included envelopes for some of the correspondence between IM and EJB, and some of these have been filmed. The reader should note the following: a) envelopes filmed were left where they were originally found and do not necessarily accompany the letters they precede or succeed; and b) those included were filmed to indicate where the recipient was residing, so that only the first envelope after each change of address was filmed.