Ida Augusta Craft (December 25, 1860 – September 14, 1947) was an American suffragist known for her participation in suffrage hikes.

Ida Craft
A middle-aged white woman, dark hair in an updo, wearing a white lacy blouse with a high collar
Ida Craft
BornDecember 25, 1860
Brooklyn, New York
DiedSeptember 14, 1947(1947-09-14) (aged 86–87)
Rockland County, New York
Occupation(s)Suffragist, social activist, prohibitionist

Early life edit

Craft was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1860, the daughter of John Craft and Eleanor Voorhies Perlee Craft. Her father was a tailor.[1][2]

Activism edit

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.[3] She attended National Woman Suffrage Association's 1900 convention in Minneapolis as a delegate.[1] She campaigned for suffrage in Ohio in 1912.[4]

Known as the "Colonel", because she assisted the "General", Rosalie Gardiner Jones,[5][6] Craft took a visible leadership role in the 1912–1914 Suffrage Hikes.[7][8] She was arrested during the hike to Boston with Elisabeth Freeman 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.[9]

After the suffrage hikes, she campaigned for women's suffrage in Montana,[10] Nevada, Nebraska, Alaska, and Canada,[1] and was a delegate to the International Alliance of Women convention in 1922, when it was held in Rome.[1][11]

Craft was an active member of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).[2][12] She was elected as a Delegate at Large to the Constitutional Convention in New York in 1914, representing the Prohibition Party.[13]

 
Mrs. J. Hardy Stubbs, Miss Ida Craft, Miss Rosalie Jones circa 1912-1913

Personal life and legacy edit

Craft inherited a "large sum" when her mother died in 1913.[14] She died at home in Pearl River, Rockland County in 1947, at the age of 86.[2] Her grave is in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[11] In 2021, the Kingsborough Art Museum created a digital exhibition about Craft's activism.[1]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e "Ida A. Craft, Brooklyn's Suffrage Pioneer". Kingsborough Art Museum. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  2. ^ a b c O'Donnell, Rhianna. "Biographical Sketch of Ida A. Craft". Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920. Alexander Street Documents. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Women Hold Conference on Suffrage". The Standard Union. 1910-03-06. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-12-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Why the Suffragists Did Not Win in Ohio". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1912-09-07. p. 22. Retrieved 2022-12-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Ida Augusta Craft (The Colonel)". WATVNYS (Women and the Vote, New York State). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  6. ^ Johnston, Peg (April 12, 2020). "Colonel Ida Craft". Elisabeth Freeman. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  7. ^ "Col. Craft Is Angry. Snub For Gen. Jones. Talks of Rushing About Country at Six-Day-Bicycle-Race Speed and Says She Doesn't Like It" (PDF). New York Times. February 25, 1913. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  8. ^ "Col. Craft Walks On, But Hikers Protest. Her Feet Swollen So Badly That She Falls Behind Companions. Says 'I Am Going Through.'" (PDF). New York Times. February 23, 1913. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
  9. ^ "Law Grips Ida A. Craft". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1913-08-20. p. 14. Retrieved 2022-12-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Eulogizes Miss Rankin; Ida A. Craft Thanks God for Such a Woman". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1917-04-12. p. 14. Retrieved 2022-12-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b "Ida A. Craft, Boro Pioneer in Women's Suffrage, Dies". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1947-09-16. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  12. ^ "The Kings County W.C.T.U. Meet". The Standard Union. 1902-09-18. p. 12. Retrieved 2022-12-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Ida Craft". Her Hat Was In The Ring. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  14. ^ "Large Sum for Ida A. Craft". The Chat. 1913-11-22. p. 43. Retrieved 2022-12-28 – via Newspapers.com.

External links edit

  Media related to Ida Craft at Wikimedia Commons