Annie Maude Norton Battelle (January 26, 1865 - March 23, 1925) was a suffragette and philanthropist. Battelle, a Republican, became very active politically after the death of her husband in 1918. She was at protestor at the

Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...

in 1920 to lobby for endorsement of women’s suffrage before a presidential nomination was made. She was president of the Women's Republican Club of Ohio as well as a delegate at large to the Republican National Convention of 1924. The Battelles had been friends with Warren and Florence Harding and Battelle headed up the women's bureau at Harding's election headquarters. Battelle served on the Annual Assay Commission for 1923, appointed by President Harding. She helped establish

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (more widely known as simply Battelle) is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation u ...

, leaving her fortune of about $2 million to the organization when she died. She was the first female trustee of the

Columbus Metropolitan Library The Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) is a public library system in Franklin County, Ohio, in the Columbus metropolitan area. The library serves an area of 872,000 residents, has a collection of 1,483,433 volumes, and circulates 17,262,267 it ...

. Battelle was born Annie Maude Norton in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

to Samuel Edwin Norton and Julia Justina Alston Norton. She married Colonel John Gordon Battelle, a steel magnate in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

in 1881. They moved to Cincinnati and Piqua before settling in Columbus, Ohio in 1905. They had one son

Gordon Battelle Gordon Battelle (10 August 1883 – 21 September 1923) was the founder of Battelle Memorial Institute, a non-profit independent research and development organization. Birth, death and family Gordon Battelle was born in Covington, Kentucky, to Oh ...

, who died in 1923. Battelle died of heart disease in Washington D.C. on March 23, 1925.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battelle, Annie Maude Norton 1865 births 1925 deaths American women's rights activists American suffragists