Title: Clara Bewick Colby Papers, (bulk 1860-1916)
Inclusive Dates: 1821-1985

Creator:

• Colby, Clara Bewick, 1846-1916

Call Number: Mss 379; M92-172; PH 1403

Quantity: 3.0 cubic feet (8 archives boxes); plus additions of 0.4 cubic feet and 14 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, mainly 1860-1916, of Clara Colby, a feminist, founder/editor of the Woman's Tribune, and officer of the Federal Suffrage Association, which document her personal life, her suffrage activities, her work as a lecturer and newspaper editor, and her interest in New Thought. Included are clippings, correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, notes, photographs, printed materials, speeches, and a few records of the Federal Suffrage Association. Prominent correspondents include Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Olympia Brown, Belva Lockwood, Marilla Ricker, Ellen Sabin, and officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and other state and international suffrage organizations.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00379

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

Noted suffragist, journalist, and newspaper editor Clara Bewick Colby was born in 1846 in Gloucester, England to Thomas and Clara Willingham Bewick. In 1849 the family immigrated to the U.S. and settled on a farm near Windsor, Wisconsin. In 1865 Clara moved to the home of her maternal grandparents in Madison, Wisconsin, in order to attend the University of Wisconsin. She graduated in 1869, valedictorian of the first University class to admit women. She then taught Latin and history, while taking graduate courses in French, Greek, and chemistry.

In 1871 Clara Bewick married Leonard Wright Colby, a Civil War veteran and graduate of the Law School of the University of Wisconsin. In 1872 the Colbys moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, where he practiced law, served as a general in the Nebraska state militia, and was twice elected to the state senate. In 1885 they adopted a three-year-old orphan from New York, Clarence, who died as a young man. During the Battle of Wounded Knee in l891 Colby reportedly found a Sioux Indian baby on the battlefield in the arms of her dead mother. The Colbys adopted the girl, Zitkala-noni (or Zintka Lanuni, meaning Lost Bird), who eventually pursued a varied theatrical career in the United States and Mexico. The Colbys were divorced in 1906 following a lengthy separation.

While living in Nebraska, Clara Colby joined the women's suffrage movement, and she worked closely with Susan B. Anthony to organize the state's campaign for a suffrage amendment in 1882. She also helped form the Nebraska Woman Suffrage Association and served as president from 1885 to 1898. In 1883 she founded the Woman's Tribune, a newspaper which discussed a wide variety of topics of interest to women in addition to covering state and national suffrage campaigns. From 1886 to 1889 the Tribune was considered the official organ of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The high point of Colby's newspaper career came in 1888 when she moved the Tribune to Washington, D.C. in order to publish a daily edition during the conventions of the International Council of Women and NWSA. Following the merger of NWSA and the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1889, the Tribune was succeeded as official suffrage paper by Alice Stone Blackwell's Woman's Journal. This decision was probably due to the fact that the Blackwell family, which published the Journal, also dominated the AWSA, and both organizations sought compromises in order to overcome their longstanding rivalry. Despite the loss of official recognition, Colby continued to work closely with Stanton, and she published Stanton's essays and opinions in the Tribune until Stanton's death in 1902. In 1904 Colby moved the paper from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Oregon, to help the suffrage movement there. However, declining circulation and increasing financial difficulties related to her marital separation led to the suspension of publication in 1909.

During her career as editor and publisher, Clara Colby also served as vice president of the Women's Press Association, and during the Spanish-American War was the first woman to be issued a war correspondent's pass.

In the early 1890s, Colby became interested in the suffrage strategy advocated by Francis Minor, a St. Louis lawyer who argued that, under the U.S. Constitution, women as “people,” were entitled to elect members of the House of Representatives. Colby served on the National-American Woman Suffrage Association Committee on Federal Suffrage, and she joined Olympia Brown's Federal Woman's Equality Association (later the Federal Suffrage Association) to lobby for this form of the franchise. Colby served as corresponding secretary and head of the association's congressional work until her death in 1916. In 1915 she organized the Congress of the Federal Suffrage Association, which was held in conjunction with the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. In addition, she participated in statewide suffrage campaigns in Oregon, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

Colby was also involved with suffrage issues abroad. In 1899 she served as delegate to the International Congress of Women in London. In 1908 and 1913, she was delegate to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Amsterdam and Budapest, and in 1910 she travelled to England to assist the suffrage movement there. In 1913 she was delegate to the International Peace Congress at The Hague. Colby was also honorary vice president of the International New Thought Alliance, vice president of the League for World Peace, and member of the International Woman's Franchise Club.

Financial difficulties compelled Colby to try to make a living as a freelance writer and lecturer. She lectured extensively in the United States and Europe on a wide range of topics including women's suffrage, dress reform, world peace, civic reform, Walt Whitman, literature, history, philosophy and New Thought, a religious movement which Colby described as “the philosophy which recognizes man's inherent divinity.” She also spent over a year lecturing before suffrage clubs and writing about England for American papers.

Clara B. Colby died September 7, 1916, in California.

The papers consist primarily of correspondence and writings detailing Colby's personal life; suffrage activities; and interest in New Thought, history, literature, and philosophy. Through her correspondence and writings the collection documents a lesser-known suffrage organization and strategy. The papers also reveal the intellectual basis of Colby's feminism and her important, although relatively unknown role in publicizing the views of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Many other prominent suffragists also appear in Colby's correspondence; an index to selected correspondence within the Correspondence series is an appendix to this register.

Unfortunately, Colby's presidency of the Nebraska Woman Suffrage Association and her committee work for the National-American Suffrage Association are not documented here, and there are no business records of the Woman's Tribune. Some additional correspondence and business and personal papers relating to Colby's life and work are included in a small collection (273 items, including 117 letters from Susan B. Anthony) held by the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The Olympia Brown Papers (1849-1956) at the Schlesinger Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts (approximately 2.0 cubic feet) contains additional materials about the Federal Suffrage Association.

The Colby Papers are organized as BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, DIARIES, CORRESPONDENCE, FEDERAL SUFFRAGE/EQUALITY ASSOCIATION, WOMAN'S TRIBUNE, and WRITINGS. Photographs received with the collection are available in the Name File in the Visual Materials Archives.

BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL includes clippings concerning Clara Colby's public lectures, suffrage activities, and divorce; drafts of a blue book entry; a memorial sketch written by Olympia Brown; and anecdotes compiled by Mrs. Colby's niece. Olympia Brown Willis' book about Colby, Democratic Ideals: a Memorial Sketch of Clara B. Colby (1917), can be found in the SHSW Library. Memorabilia and printed material filed here includes convention and meeting programs, invitations, membership cards, broadsides published by various women's organizations, Colby's naturalization certificate (1888) and war correspondent's pass (1898), and announcements and programs advertising her lectures.

There are five DIARIES in the collection. The first is a 15-page section apparently cut from a larger volume which contains short entries about her thoughts and activities as a student in 1868. Another describes her 1909 tour of the West Coast during which she lectured and attended New Thought gatherings. Three diaries, 1913-1915, pertain to her personal life and to her suffrage and New Thought activities.

The CORRESPONDENCE is the richest and most significant portion of the collection. This section is organized alphabetically, with separate files on individual suffrage leaders with whom the correspondence is extensive (Anthony, Brown, Lockwood, and Stanton) and general suffrage and personal files. An index of selected correspondents is appended to this register. The files on the suffrage leaders primarily contain incoming correspondence reflecting both Colby's personal and professional relationships with these leaders of the women's rights movement. The Susan B. Anthony correspondence file also includes copies of letters from Stanton and from suffrage supporters in the U.S. Congress. Most of these concern efforts on behalf of suffrage and may have been intended for publication in the Tribune. Letters from Olympia Brown begin with her acceptance of a seat on the NAWSA committee which sought to bring a federal suffrage bill before Congress. The remainder pertain to her partnership with Colby in the Federal Suffrage Association. Correspondence from Belva A. Lockwood concerns efforts to secure hearings for suffrage bills before Congress and Lockwood's legal career. Letters from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Colby, many of which are fragmentary, pertain to the publication of Stanton's reminiscences and the “Woman's Bible” in the Woman's Tribune. Many letters also contain Stanton's candid opinions about contemporary events and other suffrage leaders. Also included here are two manuscripts by Stanton, one on the Bloomer dress reform and the other a critique of institutional food.

The personal correspondence section contains both incoming and outgoing letters to family members dating from Colby's years as a college student until her death in 1916. These letters discuss farm, family, and college life, and reflect her relationships with her parents, grandparents, and daughter Zintka. Also included are typewritten excerpts and transcripts of letters exchanged between Clara and her parents and grandparents made by one of Clara's nieces. These were copied from original letters also found in this part of the collection. Correspondence between Clara and Leonard Colby and their lawyers concern the couple's separation, divorce, financial arrangements, and daughter.

The general correspondence pertaining to Colby's suffrage work and other activities contains letters from many noted suffrage leaders and friends such as Carrie Chapman Catt; Anna Howard Shaw; Marilla Ricker; Susan Look Avery; Matilda Joselyn Gage; Laura DeForce Gordon; May Wright Sewall; Harriet Taylor Upton; and officers and members of suffrage organizations such as the NWSA, NAWSA, International Woman Suffrage Alliance, the International Council of Women, the Women's Freedom League, and various state associations. This correspondence documents suffrage strategies, state and national level campaigns, organizational conflicts, and, at times, personal frictions. There is some overlap in this section with the Federal Suffrage Association material discussed below. While the majority of the suffrage letters filed here are incoming, the proportion of outgoing correspondence increases through the years. Much of the later correspondence concerns Colby's efforts on behalf of the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition held in San Francisco for which she organized the Congress of the Federal Suffrage Association and a New Thought exposition.

Papers of the FEDERAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION document its last few years most thoroughly and consist primarily of correspondence. Most of the letters are copies of outgoing correspondence Colby wrote in her capacity as corresponding secretary. Also included are an account book of contributions, membership lists, expenses, and copies of Colby's statements and testimony before Congress promoting federal suffrage legislation.

WOMAN'S TRIBUNE material is almost entirely comprised of incoming letters from supporters and subscribers. There is very little to document the newspaper's day-to-day operations, although numerous letters filed with suffrage correspondence and Stanton's letters do include references to the paper's financial difficulties, Colby's work as an editor and publisher, and her efforts to gain subscribers. A complete file of the Woman's Tribune, 1883-1909, is available in the SHSW Library. Also available in the library is an incomplete file of the National Bulletin, a monthly publication Colby edited while living in Washington, D.C. between 1890 and 1896.

Colby's WRITINGS consist primarily of handwritten and typed manuscripts, notes and notebooks, several speeches, and a few published articles and essays. The manuscripts, which are arranged alphabetically by title or subject, address a broad range of topics and include an unpublished book “London Past and Present”. The numbered notebooks and loose notes vary in their contents. Some summarize lectures Colby attended and books she read. Others contain research notes about prominent women and their achievements, the status of women in other societies, marriage, the roles of women in Greek and English literature, and religious teachings regarding women. Other notebooks and loose notes concern metaphysics, spirituality, eastern religions and systems of belief, and ancient and biblical mythology. Some of the notebooks are dated and several are indexed. Clippings are scattered throughout the loose notes and in a few of the notebooks. Some of the literary and biblical passages quoted in the loose notes were probably published in the Tribune.

Colby's speeches concern the progress of women's rights, and the origins of suffrage, and include testimonials to Stanton, Anthony, Lockwood, and other prominent suffragists possibly given before suffrage conventions. Two addresses about the Centennial Exposition are also filed here.

This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into 3 major parts. These materials have not been physically interfiled and researchers might need to consult more than one part to locate similar materials.

• Part 1 (Mss 379): Original Collection, 1860-1957
• Part 2 (M92-172): Additions, 1821-1985
• Part 3 (PH 1403): Additions, circa 1875-1920

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mary Bewick Matthes, New York, New York; Eva Bewick, Suquamish, Washington; and Michael Hogan, Seattle, Washington; 1957-1989. Accession Number: M61-128, M89-305, M92-172

Processing Information

Processed by Rachel Collins and Joanne Hohler, 1976, and Cindy Knight, 1990.

Mss 379	Part 1 (Mss 379): Original Collection, 1860-1957 Physical Description: 3.0 cubic feet (8 archives boxes)  Scope and Content Note: Papers, mainly 1860-1916, of Clara Colby, a feminist, founder/editor of the Woman's Tribune, and officer of the Federal Suffrage Association, which document her personal life, her suffrage activities, her work as a lecturer and newspaper editor, and her interest in the New Thought religious philosophy. Included are clippings, correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, notes, photographs, printed materials, speeches, and a few records of the Federal Suffrage Association. Prominent correspondents include Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Olympia Brown, Belva Lockwood, Marilla Ricker, Ellen Sabin, and officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and other state and international suffrage organizations. Personal papers concern Colby's experiences as a University of Wisconsin student (1865-1869), her marital separation and divorce, and her adopted Sioux Indian daughter.
	Series: Biographical Material
Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical material, 1878-1916, 1957, undated
Box   8 Folder   5	Colby lecture announcements, women's organizations, 1882-1915
Box   8 Folder   6	Certificates and memorabilia, 1872-1915
Box   1 Folder   2-6	Series: Diaries, 1868, 1909, 1913-1915	⇧
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
Box   1 Folder   7	Anthony, Susan B., 1887-1901
Box   1 Folder   8	Brown, Olympia, 1889-1892, 1903-1906, 1910
Box   1 Folder   9	Lockwood, Belva A., 1891-1916
	Personal correspondence
Box   1 Folder   10-13	1860-1879
Box   2 Folder   1-6	1880-1916
Box   2 Folder   7-10	Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1887-1902, undated
Box   3 Folder   1-5	Suffrage and other activities, 1880-1916
	Series: Federal Suffrage/Equality Association	⇧
Box   3 Folder   6	Account book, 1912-1916
	Correspondence
Box   3 Folder   7	1903, 1909, 1914-1915
Box   4 Folder   1	1915-1916
Box   4 Folder   2	Printed material, reports, testimony, 1904, 1913-1916
	Series: Woman's Tribune	⇧
Box   4 Folder   3	Correspondence, 1888-1910
Box   4 Folder   4	Writings by others, 1886, undated
	Series: Writings	⇧
Box   4 Folder   5-6	College essays and papers, 1867-1869, undated
	Manuscripts
Box   4 Folder   7	“Child in Hungary,” undated
Box   4 Folder   8	Christmas and Easter customs, 1914, undated
Box   4 Folder   9	“Compulsory arbitration,” 1901, undated
Box   4 Folder   10	England, 1914, undated
Box   4 Folder   11	“Flowers and soul-force”
Box   4 Folder   12	Fuller, Margaret, 1895, 1903, 1910, undated
Box   5 Folder   1	Great women, 1891, 1901, undated
Box   5 Folder   2	History of Ireland, undated
Box   5 Folder   3	History of the Netherlands, undated
Box   5 Folder   4	“Human rights the foundation of government,” undated
Box   5 Folder   5	Hus, John, undated
Box   5 Folder   6	“The liquor question, and can it be settled,” undated
Box   5 Folder   7-8	“London Past and Present,” 1914
Box   5 Folder   9-10	“Old Louisiana,” undated
Box   5 Folder   11	Rabrindranath Tagore, undated
Box   5 Folder   12	“Special correspondence to the (Oregon) Journal,” 1910-1911
Box   5 Folder   13	Various subjects, 1908, 1914
Box   6 Folder   1	Women in literature and religion, undated
Box   6 Folder   2	“Women in the building of America,” undated
Box   6 Folder   3	“Women's suffrage in England,” undated
Box   6 Folder   4	Women's suffrage and suffrage leaders, undated
	Notebooks, circa 1869-1914, undated
Box   6 Folder   5	Unnumbered volume, circa 1869
Box   6 Folder   6-10	Numbers 1,4,5,8,9
Box   7 Folder   1-4	Numbers 13,16,24,25
Box   7 Folder   5-7	Unnumbered Volumes
	Notes
Box   7 Folder   8	“History and Spiritual Significance of Women's Suffrage,” undated
Box   7 Folder   9	Philosophy and religion, undated
Box   7 Folder   10	Various subjects, 1914, undated
Box   7 Folder   11	Women, 1903-1907, 1913, undated
Box   7 Folder   12	Women in literature, undated
Box   8 Folder   1	Poetry, undated
Box   8 Folder   2	Printed articles, 1881, 1902, 1910-1913, undated
	Speeches
Box   8 Folder   3	Centennial Exposition, 1892-1893
Box   8 Folder   4	Women's rights, suffrage leaders, undated
Box   8 Folder   5	Lecture announcements, Women's organizations, 1882-1915
Box   8 Folder   6	Certificates and Memorabilia, 1872-1915
M92-172	Part 2 (M92-172): Additions, 1821-1985 Physical Description: 0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box) and 9 photographs (1 folder)  Scope and Content Note: Additions, 1821-1985 (mainly 1868-1878), concerning Clara Colby's ancestry and family life, and her activities as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1868. Included is correspondence between members of the Bewick and Chilton families; letters from Leonard Colby, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; and several chapters of the “Women's Bible” and a manuscript titled “Women Do Not Wish to Vote,” both in Stanton's hand. There are also transcribed excerpts from correspondence between Colby and her grandparents and from her 1868 diary; her marriage certificate and divorce papers; a journal of psalms and poetry (some written by friends); photographs of Clara and her daughter Zintka; biographical/genealogical accounts of the Bewick, Sabin, and Espenett families; and a signed note from William T. Sherman.	⇧
PH 1403	Part 3 (PH 1403): Additions, circa 1875-1920 Physical Description: 5 photographs (1 folder)  Scope and Content Note: Photographs of Colby, her ancestors, and residence in Beatrice, Nebraska, circa 1875-1920.	⇧

List of Selected Correspondents in the Correspondence Series

Anthony, Susan B.

1894 March 12 (to Stanton)

1895 September 19 (to Stanton)

1898 December 2

1898 December 3 (to Stanton)

1900 June 5 (to Stanton)

1900 June 11 (to Stanton)

1901 January 16 (to Colby)

1901 March? (to Colby)

1901 April 2 (to Colby)

1901 April 14 (to Colby)

Avery, Susan Look

1897 February 19

1905 February 6

1905 February 20

1906 February 2

1907 March 24

1907 July 29

1908 January 27

1908 February 24

1908 March 8

Barton, Clara

1895 March 15

Besant, Annie

1897 July 13

Bloomer, Amelia

1888 March 19 (to Anthony)

Brown, Olympia

39 letters: 1889-1892, 1903-1906, 1910

Bryan, William Jennings

1892 April 26

1893 April 20 (3)

Bryan, Mary Baird (Mrs. William Jennings)

1914 January 6

Catt, Carrie Chapman

1895 November 27

1908 November 28

1908 December 14

1908 December 18

1909 February 19

Gage, Matilda Joselyn

1881 September 10

1889 February 20

1889 June 4 (to Stanton)

1889 November 30

1890 March 10

1891 February 23

1894 January 24

1895 May 17

1895 May 30

Gordon, Laura DeForce

1891 February 13

1893 April 2

1894 February 14

1894 February 21

1894 May 7

1895 July 15

1895 November 9

Markham, Edwin

1907 January 14

1908 April 15

1908 April 26

1908 November 23

1914 May 16

Ricker, Marilla

1901 September 8

1901 October 12

1901 December 11

1902 December 2

1903 February 24

1903 September 1

1903 September 27

1904 November 14

1904 December 19

1905 January 8

1905 March 24

1905 April 27

1905 May 7

1905 May 17

1905 June 13

1905 July 1

1905 December 29

1906, August 8

1907 February 8

1908 May 1

Sabin, Ellen (Ella) C. (President of Milwaukee Downer College)

1866 November 18

1868 April 28

1868 June 3

1869 May 23

1869 June 24

1869 July 28

1881 January 3

1901 February 1

1910 March 22

1915 May 27

Sewall, May Wright

1881 November 9

1881 December 15

1896 January 14

1903 November 26

1906 August 27 (missing 6/24/87)

1914 December 24

1915 January 12

1915 February 8

1915 March 8

1915 April 27

1915 June 17

Shaw, Anna

circa 1899 November

1906 April 14 (2)

1906 April 16 (2)

1906 May 1

1906 November 15

1906 December 7

1908 November 23

1908 December 11

1909 September 15

Sikes, Olive Logan

1890 March 4

1891 April 7

1894 January

1894 August 21

1903 April 26

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

Approximately 130 letters, circa 1887-1902

Tolstoy, Leo

1894 October 17/29

Train, George Francis

Notes, circa 1904-1904

Thwaites, Reuben Gold

1909 March 8

Upton, Harriet Taylor

1902 August 5

1905 January 5

1905 February 22

1906 February 21

1906 March 19

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

1891 December 10

Zangwill, Israel

1910 November 28