Ida Augusta Craft (December 25, 1860 – September 14, 1947) was an American suffragist known for her participation in
suffrage hikes.
Early life
Craft was born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York in 1860, the daughter of John Craft and Eleanor Voorhies Perlee Craft. Her father was a tailor.
Activism
Craft was an officer of the Bedford Political Equality League in 1897, president of the Kings County Political Equality League and belonged to the Brooklyn chapter of the
Woman Suffrage Party. She attended
National Woman Suffrage Association
The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed on May 15, 1869, to work for women's suffrage in the United States. Its main leaders were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It was created after the women's rights movement s ...
's 1900 convention in Minneapolis as a delegate.
She campaigned for suffrage in Ohio in 1912.
Known as the "Colonel", because she assisted the "General",
Rosalie Gardiner Jones
Rosalie Gardiner Jones (February 24, 1883 – January 12, 1978) was an American suffragette. She took the "Pankhursts" as role models and after hearing of the " Brown Women" she organised marches to draw attention to the suffrage cause. She was ...
, Craft took a visible leadership role in the 1912–1914 Suffrage Hikes.
She was arrested during the hike to Boston with
Elisabeth Freeman
Elisabeth Freeman (September 12, 1876 – February 27, 1942) was a British-born American suffragist and civil rights activist, best known for her investigative report for the NAACP on the May 1916 spectacle lynching of Jesse Washington in Wa ...
and Vera Winthrop; they were briefly detained in Hartford, for breaking laws around the use of a vehicle for advertising and the distribution of flyers.
After the suffrage hikes, she campaigned for women's suffrage in Montana, Nevada, Nebraska, Alaska, and Canada,
and was a delegate to the
International Alliance of Women
The International Alliance of Women (IAW; french: Alliance Internationale des Femmes, AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international org ...
convention in 1922, when it was held in Rome.
Craft was an active member of the
Young Women's Christian Association
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
(YWCA) and the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
(WCTU).
She was elected as a Delegate at Large to the Constitutional Convention in New York in 1914, representing the
Prohibition Party
The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...
.
Personal life and legacy
Craft inherited a "large sum" when her mother died in 1913.
She died at home in
Pearl River
The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...
,
Rockland County
Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...
in 1947, at the age of 86.
Her grave is in
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several bl ...
in Brooklyn.
In 2021, the Kingsborough Art Museum created a digital exhibition about Craft's activism.
See also
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
*
List of women's rights activists
This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.
Afghanistan
* Amina Azimi – disabled women's rights advocate
* Hasina Jalal – women's empowerm ...
*
Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craft, Ida
1947 deaths
American women's rights activists
American feminists
American suffragists
1860 births