Eva Ingersoll Wakefield
Eva Ingersoll Wakefield | |
---|---|
Born | Eva Ingersoll Brown 1892 |
Died | 1 April 1970 |
Occupation(s) | Writer, poet, activist, humanist |
Organization(s) | Vivisection Investigation League, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, American Humanist Association |
Relatives | Robert G. Ingersoll (grandfather) Eva Parker Ingersoll (grandmother) Maud Ingersoll Probasco (aunt) |
Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield (1892 – 1 April 1970) was a writer,[1] poet,[2] freethinker, and an authority on the life of Robert G. Ingersoll, her grandfather.[3]
Personal life
[edit]Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York in 1892, the daughter of Walston H. and Eva Ingersoll Brown. Her mother, Eva Ingersoll Brown, was a suffragist and activist.[5] She was tutored as a child, and later graduated from Columbia University.
In 1917, Brown married McNeal Swasey, but they later divorced.[6] She married Sherman Day Wakefield, an author, editor, and bibliographer, in 1932.[2][7][6] The wedding was performed by John Lovejoy Elliott of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, at the home of her aunt,[8] Maud Ingersoll Probasco.[6] Sherman Wakefield was on the editorial staff of The Humanist and also of Progressive World.[7] Eva herself was a contributor to The Humanist, as well as writing poetry.[2] One of her poems was included in an anthology compiled by Edwin Markham, with whom she studied.[2]
A passionate defender of her grandfather's legacy,[9] Eva Ingersoll Wakefield published The Life and Letters of Robert G. Ingersoll in 1951, and later donated a significant amount of 'Ingersolliana' to the Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and other archives.[10][11] As well as personal collections and copies of letters kept by her mother (Ingersoll's daughter) and aunt, Wakefield gathered correspondence from letters and journals, and from the collection of Harry Houdini.[10]
Activism
[edit]Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield was one of the earliest members of the First Humanist Society of New York, founded in 1929,[3][12] and later President of the New York Chapter of the American Humanist Association.[2]
During the 1930s, Wakefield was active in the Manhattan Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[2] She was also director of the Vivisection Investigation League[2] and a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York.[2]
In addition to editing The Life and Letters of Robert G. Ingersoll, Wakefield was secretary of the Robert G. Ingersoll Memorial Association.[13][14] which maintained the Robert Ingersoll Birthplace in Dresden, N.Y., as a museum.[2]
Death
[edit]She died on 1 April 1970 at the Carolton Hospital in Fairfield, Connecticut.[2] At her memorial service, in lieu of flowers, contributions to the R.G. Ingersoll Memorial Association were requested.[15] Sherman Day Wakefield died the following year.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Ingersoll, Robert Green; Wakefield, Eva Ingersoll; Pike, E. Royston, Brown, Eva Ingersoll; Ingersoll, Robert Green (1952). The life and letters of Robert G. Ingersoll. OCLC 877108082.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Mrs. Sherman Wakefield Dies; A Granddaughter of Ingersoll". The New York Times. 1970-04-02. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ a b Goodall, Madeleine (2022-03-24). "On the Trail of Humanism's Hidden Women". TheHumanist.com. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ Bros, Pach (n.d.). "Robert Ingersoll with Eva Ingersoll Wakefield and Robert G. Ingersoll Brown". www.chroniclingillinois.org. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ "Suffragists At Rally in Home of Robert Ingersoll's Daughter, Mrs. Walston Brown". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ a b c "MRS. SWASEY WED TO S. D. 1AKEFIELD; (Granddaughter of Late. Robert G. Ingersoll Married in Home '". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ a b c "S. D. WAKEFIELD, BIBLIOGRAPHER, 76". The New York Times. 1971-05-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ "I MRS. PROBASCO DIES; INGERSOLL DAUGHTER; Followed Father's Position as an Agnostic -- Also Worked for Suffrage and Peace". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ Brown, Eva Ingersoll (1911-10-12). "DEFENDS COL. INGERSOLL.; Agnostic's Granddaughter Eulogizes His Character and Creed". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
- ^ a b Ingersoll, Robert Green (1952). Life and letters. George A. Smathers Libraries University of Florida. London,: Watts.
- ^ Treasures of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein. Carbondale. 2014. ISBN 978-0-8093-3337-0. OCLC 890676005.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Ian Dowbiggin (2002-10-22). A Merciful End. Oxford University Press: USA. ISBN 978-0-19-515443-6.
- ^ The Humanist: Vol 8 Iss 2. American Humanist Association. 1948.
- ^ Arch Merrill (1950). Upstate Echoes.
- ^ "Memorial Services". The New York Times. 1970-04-16. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
External links
[edit]- The Life and Letters of Robert G. Ingersoll (English edition) at Internet Archive