Wilmarth, Mary Jane Hawes (1837-1919)

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1910_Chicago_Garment _Workers_Strike.jpg

Chicago Garment Workers' Strike, 1910

Jane Addams to Emily Herey Denison, June 30, 1901

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, May 3, 1902

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, May 19, 1902

Traditional Housekeeping and Pure Food, February 17, 1906

Jane Addams to Anita McCormick Blaine, July 21, 1906

Hull-House Year Book 1906-1907

Autobiographical Notes Upon Twenty Years at Hull-House: Early Undertakings at Hull-House, June 1910

Waldo Ralph Browne to Jane Addams, August 10, 1910

Waldo Ralph Browne to Mary Rozet Smith, August 10, 1910

Waldo Ralph Browne to Louise de Koven Bowen, August 10, 1910

Chicago Child Welfare Exhibit, General Committee List, March 1911

Jane Addams to Raymond Robins, July 26, 1912

Charles Lawrence Hutchinson to Jane Addams, August 5, 1912

Margaret Dreier Robins to Jane Addams, September 19, 1912

Margaret Dreier Robins to Frances Alice Kellor. October 9, 1912

Margaret Dreier Robins to Jane Addams, November 5, 1912

Katharine Coman to Jane Addams, June 26, 1913

Jane Addams to Ellen Gates Starr, August 1, 1913

Minutes of the Emergency Peace Committee, December 19, 1914

Jane Addams to Lucia Ames Mead, January 3, 1915

Jane Addams to Rosika Schwimmer, January 6, 1915

Carrie Chapman Catt to Jane Addams, January 27, 1915

Alice Peloubet Norton to Jane Addams, April 19, 1915

Jane Addams to Mabel L. Hyers, September 20, 1915

Jane Addams to Mabel L. Hyers, September 29, 1915

Frances Lillie Crane to Jane Addams, December 30, 1915

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, March 10, 1916

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, June 24, 1916

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, August 8, 1916

Harriet Park Thomas to Jane Addams, August 8, 1916

Contributions received for the Women's Congress After the War, January 17, 1917

Contributions received to Fund for Woman's Congress After the War, January 30, 1917

Contributions subscribed to Fund for Woman's Congress After the War, February 1, 1917

Jane Addams to Zona Gale, May 2, 1917

Jane Addams to Anna Marcet Haldeman-Julius, September 10, 1917

Clara Landsberg to Anna Marcet Haldeman-Julius, September 23, 1917

Jane Addams to Margaret I. Nichols, September 25, 1917

Jane Addams to Woman's Peace Party--National Executive Board, September 26, 1917 (draft)

Jane Addams to Woman's Peace Party--National Executive Board, September 26, 1917

Lucia Ames Mead to Jane Addams, September 28, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Jane Addams, September 28, 1917

Jane Addams to Katherine Davis Cumberson, October 2, 1917

Anna Garlin Spencer to Jane Addams, October 3, 1917

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Alice Thacher Post, October 6, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Jane Addams, October 6, 1917

Zona Gale to Jane Addams, October 17, 1917

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Lucy Biddle Lewis, October 18, 1917

Zona Gale to Jane Addams, December 1, 1917

Address of Miss Jane Addams at the Funeral of Mary Jane Hawes Wilmarth, August 30, 1919

Introductory Remarks at a memorial meeting for Mary Jane Hawes Wilmarth, October 21, 1919

Browse all documents that mention "Wilmarth, Mary Jane Hawes (1837-1919)"

Jane Addams to Mary Jane Hawes Wilmarth, September 20, 1915

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Birth Date

1837-05-21

Death Date

1919-08

Birthplace

New Bedford, MA

Biographical Text

Mary J. Hawes Wilmarth was known best for her work as a social and civic reformer, suffragist, and club woman. She attended Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, NH as a child. In her early years of volunteerism, she stepped out of the social boundaries that women were only supposed to be associated with philanthropic events, and not political and social reforms. She was the president of the Illinois branch of the Consumers League, involved with the Legal Aid Society and was a strong supporter of the Women’s Trade Union League. Wilmarth marched against Hart, Schaffner, and Marx (HS&M) during the 1910 garment workers strike. Among other reforms in the category of worker’s rights, she bailed out HS&M picketers who could not do so themselves and petitioned for a half day off for salespeople on a department store on Saturday. Although she took great pride in her work as a suffragette, she realized the limitations of women’s influence at the time. Wilmarth gave money to the University of Chicago to further their special projects for women. Wilmarth was a prominent member of the Fornightly, the Chicago Women’s Club, and the Women’s City Club of Chicago. She was a two-time president of the Fortnightly, founded by Kate Newell Doggett for the purpose of the pursuit of intellectualism and discussion of culture for women. She was also an active member of the Chicago Women’s Club, which became one of the largest women’s clubs in the country. Wilmarth took action to justify women’s place in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. After this, a depression followed in Chicago, and Wilmarth, partnered with the Chicago Women’s Club, took action to supply employment for poor mothers. Figures such as Wilmarth and Addams helped to implement Progressivism in the years to come, with a focus on women’s suffrage, direct primaries, child labor laws, 8-hour workdays, and minimum wages for women. Wilmarth continued contact with Addams throughout World War I, supporting her through her war-driven pacifism that split her apart from some club members and reformers. Mary J. Hawes Wilmarth passed away in 1919 at her summer home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, after suffering a broken hip.

Wilmarth married Henry Martin Wilmarth in 1861. They had two daughters, Stella and Anna.

As her activism and reform branched out, Wilmarth became involved with Jane Addams. Wilmarth looked up to Addams and became an early enthusiastic supporter of her work and the Hull-House. Wilmarth was appointed the first president of the original board of trustees of Hull-House. She helped Addams with financial troubles of the institution and introduced Ellen Gates Starr, co-founder of the Hull-House, to wealthy reform clubwomen of Chicago. Wilmarth shared interests with and had much appreciation for Addams in evident letters exchanged between the two. She also encouraged Ellen Gates Starr to go to England to learn the art of bookbinding to teach at Hull-House.

Map

Rights

Public domain

Contributor

Sciancalepore, Victoria

Bradley, Ed

Gender

Female

First appears

1901

Bibliography and Links

Digital Public Library of America

Kimball Union Archives

Schultz, Rima Lunin, and Adele Hast. Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

Citation

“Wilmarth, Mary Jane Hawes (1837-1919),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed September 22, 2023, http://mail.digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/1421.