Esther Everett Lape
(8 October 1881 – 17 May 1981) was a well-known American journalist, researcher, and publicist. She was associated with the
Women's Trade Union League
The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important ...
and was one of the founders of the
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...
.
Her life-partner, Elizabeth Read, was her personal attorney and financial advisor.
Career
Esther Lape taught English at
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...
, the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, and
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
.
She was an activist of the
Women's Trade Union League
The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important ...
and one of the founders of the
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...
.
Lape was the director of the
American Foundation for Studies in Government of which her partner,
Elizabeth Fisher Read
Elizabeth Fisher Read (1872 – December 13, 1943) was a scholar and Women's Suffrage activist, and one of Eleanor Roosevelt's most dear friends.
Early life
Elizabeth Fisher Read was born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1872.
She graduated fro ...
, was director of research.
In the 1920s and 1930s she led an unsuccessful battle for United States participation in the
World Court.
Lape edited a book on expert medical testimony, ''Medical Research: A Midcentury Survey'' (1955), sponsored by the American Foundation.
In 1923 she collaborated with Read and
Gustav Frenssen
Gustav Frenssen (19 October 1863 – 11 April 1945) was a German novelist. He wrote patriotically about his native country and promoted ''Heimatkunst'' (regionalism) in literature.
Biography
Frenssen was born in the village of Barlt, in the Du ...
to ''Klaus Hinrich Baas: The Story Of A Self-made Man...''. Together with Read, Lape published the journal ''City, State and Nation''.
Personal life
Esther Everett Lape was born on October 8, 1881, in Wilmington, Delaware. She attended public school in Philadelphia, then
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
and
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
.
Esther Lape lived with
Elizabeth Fisher Read
Elizabeth Fisher Read (1872 – December 13, 1943) was a scholar and Women's Suffrage activist, and one of Eleanor Roosevelt's most dear friends.
Early life
Elizabeth Fisher Read was born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1872.
She graduated fro ...
, Women's Suffrage activist and
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
's lawyer and friend, in Greenwich Village, at 20 East 11th Street, where today a plaque said Eleanor Roosevelt lived here when she was first lady.
The building was actually owned by Lape.
Roosevelt, who had met Lape through Read in 1920, rented an apartment for a time.
Nearby, at 171 West 12th Street, lived other lesbian couples involved in the Woman's Suffrage movement and of the close-knit circle of friends of Roosevelt:
Marion Dickerman
Marion Dickerman (April 11, 1890 – May 16, 1983) was an American suffragist, educator, vice-principal of the Todhunter School, and a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Birth and early life
Born in Westfield, New York, she studied for two y ...
and
Nancy Cook,
Molly Dewson
Mary Williams (Molly) Dewson (1874–1962) was an American feminist and political activist. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1897, she worked for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. She became an active member of the National ...
and
Polly Porter,
Grace Hutchins and
Anna Rochester.
Lape, with her life partner, Read, and other Roosevelt's female friends, was part of Roosevelt's support network of female friends.
Lape and Read also owned a country house, Salt Meadow, Westbrook, Connecticut, where Roosevelt was often a guest.
In 1972, after Read's death, Lape donated Salt Meadow to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The estate is currently the
Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.
Refuge staff are working on a submission for National Register of Historical Places recognition for the former Salt Meadow estate that will recognize the same-sex relationship of Lape and Read.
Esther Everett Lape died on May 17, 1981, in New York City, at 99 years old.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lape, Esther
1881 births
1981 deaths
Schoolteachers from Delaware
20th-century American women educators
American feminists
Lesbian feminists
LGBT people from Delaware
20th-century American educators
Bryn Mawr College alumni
Wellesley College alumni
Barnard College faculty
Columbia University faculty
University of Arizona faculty
Swarthmore College faculty
American women academics