Katrina Ely Tiffany

Katrina Ely Tiffany
News photograph of a suffrage parade, with a white woman wearing white, holding a large American flag; a boy is helping to hold the flag. Drummers stand behind the two figures in the foreground.
Tiffany carrying the American flag in a suffrage parade in New York City, 1917
Born
Katrina Brandes Ely

(1875-03-25)March 25, 1875
Altoona, Pennsylvania, US
DiedMarch 11, 1927(1927-03-11) (aged 51)
New York City, US
Alma materBryn Mawr College
Known forsuffrage leadership, philanthropy
Spouse
Charles Louis Tiffany II
​
​
(m. 1901)​
ParentTheodore N. Ely
RelativesGertrude Sumner Ely (sister), Louis Comfort Tiffany (father-in-law)

Katrina Brandes Ely Tiffany (March 25, 1875 – March 11, 1927) was an American suffragist and philanthropist, from a prominent Philadelphia family.

Early life

Katrina Brandes Ely was born March 25, 1875, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Theodore N. Ely and Henrietta van Siden Brandes Ely.[1] Her father was vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. She attended the Baldwin School, and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1897.[2][3]

Her sister Gertrude Sumner Ely was a noted philanthropist, who was twice awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery in World War I.[4]

Career

Despite her husband's opposition to suffrage work, Tiffany was president of the New York Collegiate Equal Franchise League,[5] and an officer of the Woman Suffrage Party of New York, and was a regular speaker at the Glen Cove Equal Suffrage Club near, Elmwood, her summer home on Long Island.[2] In 1916, she was in the "cordon of honor" at the Atlantic City Suffrage Convention, welcoming President Wilson to the event.[6] She led a 1917 suffrage parade in New York City, carrying a large American flag.[7] After suffrage was won, she was active in the League of Women Voters, campaigned for James W. Wadsworth, and advocated for the League of Nations.[8] In 1920, she wrote an article for Harper's Bazaar titled "Women of To-Morrow Need the College of To-Day".[9]

Tiffany chaired the War Service Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA),[10] and organized knitted donations for sailors, as chair of the 27th Assembly District's Navy Comforts Unit.[11]

Tiffany served on the executive committees of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children[12] and the Sunnyside Day Nursery.[1] She spent a term as president of the Bryn Mawr College alumnae association, and of the Bryn Mawr Club of New York City.[13]

Personal life

Katrina Ely married Charles Louis Tiffany II (1878–1947), son of Louis Comfort Tiffany, in 1901.[14] They lived in New York City, and summered in Oyster Bay Cove on Long Island.[2] She died from pneumonia on March 11, 1927, aged 51 years, in New York City.[15][4] Carrie Chapman Catt and Charles P. Howland spoke at memorial service for Tiffany in New York. "The life of Katrina Ely Tiffany was the best example I know of what a good citizen should be," Catt declared. "She left the world better than she found it."[16] She left the bulk of her estate to her sisters and to the Bryn Mawr College alumnae association.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Leonard, John W. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914–1915. American Commonwealth Company. pp. 817. Katrina Ely Tiffany.
  2. ^ a b c Petrash, Antonia (2013). Long Island and the Woman Suffrage Movement. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781614239642.
  3. ^ College, Bryn Mawr (1905). Program. Philadelphia. p. 165. Katrina Brandes Ely.
  4. ^ a b "Gertrude S. Ely, Heroine of 1918". The New York Times. October 28, 1970. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  5. ^ Goodier, Susan; Pastorello, Karen (2017). Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501713194.
  6. ^ Blair, Emily Newell; Laas, Virginia Jeans (1999). Bridging Two Eras: The Autobiography of Emily Newell Blair, 1877–1951. University of Missouri Press. p. 174. ISBN 9780826260925.
  7. ^ Neuman, Johanna (2017). Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites who Fought for Women's Right to Vote. NYU Press. p. 123. ISBN 9781479837069.
  8. ^ "Mrs. C. L. Tiffany, Civic Worker, Dead; One-Time Noted Suffragette Succumbs to Pneumonia After a Week's Illness". The New York Times. March 12, 1927. p. 15.
  9. ^ Tiffany, Katrina Ely (March 1920). "Women of To-Morrow Need the College of To-Day". Harper's Bazaar. Vol. 55. pp. 51, 132.
  10. ^ Lemay, Kate Clarke; Goodier, Susan; Tetrault, Lisa; Jones, Martha (2019). Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence. Princeton University Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780691191171.
  11. ^ Tiffany, Katrina Ely (July 29, 1917). "Women Invited to Knit". The New York Times. p. 68.
  12. ^ Fifty-sixth Annual Report. New York Infirmary for Women and Children. 1909. p. 8.
  13. ^ a b "Mrs. Tiffany Leaves Estate to Bryn Mawr". The New York Times. March 31, 1927. p. 25.
  14. ^ Whittlesey, George N., ed. (1905). Triennial Record, Yale University Class of 1900. p. 80.
  15. ^ "Mrs. Katrina Ely Tiffany". Harrisburg Telegraph. March 14, 1927. p. 9. Retrieved September 15, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Mrs. Tiffany Honored at Memorial Service". The New York Times. April 21, 1927. p. 27.