Florence Marion Howe Hall (August 25, 1845 – April 10, 1922)
was an American writer, critic, and lecturer about
women's suffrage in the United States
In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, white male citizens..."
Women's legal right to vote w ...
.
Along with her two sisters,
Laura Elizabeth Richards and
Maude Howe Elliott, Hall received the first Pulitzer Prize for a biography, ''Julia Ward Howe.''
Early life
Howe was born on August 25, 1845 in
South Boston, Massachusetts
South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...
.
She was named Florence after
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...
, her godmother and friend of her parents, and Marion after her great—great-granduncle, General
Francis Marion
Brigadier-General Francis Marion ( 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known as the Swamp Fox, was an American military officer, planter and politician who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. During the Ameri ...
of the
Revolutionary War fame.
Florence was the second of six children born of the marriage of Dr.
Samuel Gridley Howe
Samuel Gridley Howe (November 10, 1801 – January 9, 1876) was an American physician, abolitionist, and advocate of education for the blind. He organized and was the first director of the Perkins Institution. In 1824 he had gone to Greece to ...
, a prominent physician, abolitionist and founder of the
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind
Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.
Perkins manufactures its own Perkins Br ...
, and
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe (; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 pacifist Mother's Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism ...
, a poet and author, best known for writing "
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The "Battle Hymn of the Republic", also known as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" or "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" outside of the United States, is a popular American patriotic song written by the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe.
Howe wrote her l ...
".
Her elder sister was
Julia Romana Howe; and her younger siblings included Henry Marion Howe, a metallurgist;
Laura (née Howe) Richards and
Maud (née Howe) Elliott, both authors;
[Ziegler, Valarie H. 'Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe,'' page 11. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003] Her younger sister Maud married
John Elliott, an English muralist and illustrator.
She was educated at private schools in Boston and nearby, including the
Agassiz School of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. She later studied music with
Otto Dresel
Otto Dresel (December 20, 1826 – July 26, 1890) was an American pianist, music teacher and composer of German birth.
Biography
He studied with Moritz Hauptmann in Leipzig, and received guidance
from Ferdinand Hiller and Felix Mendelssohn. Betwe ...
, the pianist, music teacher and composer.
Career
She was a writer, critic, and lecturer about
women's suffrage in the United States
In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, white male citizens..."
Women's legal right to vote w ...
, serving as president of the New Jersey State Woman Suffrage Association from 1893 to 1900.
Hall began her writing career with children's stories, but quickly moved on to memoirs and etiquette books.
She was the author of ''Social Customs: Boys, Girls and Manners'', ''The Correct Thing in Good Society'', ''Social Usages at Washington'', which she wrote with her sister Maud Elliot.
In 1917, Hall received a
Pulitzer prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for her biography of her mother, entitled ''Julia Ward Howe'', the first Pulitzer Prize for a biography.
Along with her sisters, she also wrote a biography of
Laura Bridgeman, who was a student of their father's.
For eleven years, Hall served as president of the Plainfield, New Jersey branch of the National Alliance of Unitarian Women and, for several years, regent of the Continental Chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence.
A non-profit group, they promote ...
.
Personal life
On November 15, 1871, she was married to David Prescott Hall (1845–1907). David, a lawyer, was the youngest son of six children born to David Priestley Hall, a Harvard educated lawyer, and Caroline (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Minturn) Hall,
who spent their summers in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...
.
The couple met while Hall was in Newport and had four children:
* Samuel Prescott Hall (1872–1958), who married Sarah Thomson (1873–1940).
He was a graduate of Harvard.
* Caroline Minturn Hall (1874–1972), who married the Rev. Hugh Birckhead (1876–1929),
Rector of
St. George's Church in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
Caroline studied painting for seven years in Paris.
* Henry Marion Hall (1877–1963), who married Alice Louise Haskell (1880–1977).
He was a graduate of Harvard and
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 ...
.
* John Howe Hall (1881–1953), who married Gertrude Earnshaw (1892–1964).
He was a graduate of Harvard.
In New York City, they lived at 17 Livingston Place.
In 1893, the Halls moved to
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City." , where he died at his home on June 5, 1907.
Florence died on April 10, 1922 in
High Bridge, New Jersey
High Bridge is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 3,648,[Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...]
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Florence
1922 deaths
1845 births
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners
20th-century American biographers
American women biographers
20th-century American women writers
Women autobiographers
Writers from Boston